Page 169 - James Rodger Fleming - Fixing the sky

5.3 Project Cirrus hurricane-seeding experiment and the subsequent path of Hurricane
King in 1947 (solid line), compared with the path of a 1906 hurricane (dashed line) that
also had turned suddenly. A retrospective study by the weather bureau showed that
upper-level steering currents, not seeding with dry ice, had likely caused the storm to
veer suddenly. (schaefer papers)

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that he was “not allowed to say” whether the seeding had had any visual effects.
Commander Rex’s official report, not yet released, claimed a pronounced modifi-
cation of the cloud deck that had been seeded. What happened after that, accord-
ing to Langmuir, “nobody knows,” since Hurricane King made a “hairpin” turn
and headed west, smashing into the coast along the Georgia–South Carolina
border near Savannah (figure 5.3). In Charleston, a tree fell, killing one person,
and the storm caused more than $23 million in damage during its second land-
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fall. A letter in a St. Petersburg newspaper from J. M. Enders and addressed to
GE research director Suits placed the blame for the devastation on “the weather
tinkers of your lab” and pointed out that the people of Savannah were not so sure
it was a coincidence. In fact, they were “pretty sore at the army and navy for fool-
ing around with the hurricane.” 49

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