Don’t mess with Mother Nature — and never underestimate the power of a hurricane. By the time Hurricane Helene hit the Upstate, although downgraded to a tropical storm, she was still powerful enough to cause flooding, and take down trees and power lines, making us powerless.
Scientists have been trying to control the weather for centuries. Everything from rain making, lightning squelching, hurricane snuffing, fog lifting, frost smothering, and hail pelting. Melt that frost on our peaches and strawberries, eradicate fog, massacre hurricanes, and freeze those droughts before they can burn our crops.
Mother Nature, who is not a scientist, has the power to create a tornado, or a blizzard, or a hurricane at will. She can withhold the rain until our tomatoes wilt, our corn “pops” on the stalk, and our sweet potatoes turn sour in the soil.
Several of our Founding Fathers were weather enthusiasts. Benjamin Franklin, who is known for his electrifying experiments, was the first to chart the Gulf Stream. George Washington kept weather diaries and made his final entry in December on the day before he died — “Morning Snowing & abt. 3 Inches deep.”
Thomas Jefferson had always wanted to create a national meteorological service and kept a detailed weather journal. One journal begins on May 1, 1776 while he was in Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence. For the next 50 years Jefferson tracked barometric pressure readings, wind speeds, and temperature. He made notes about frosts and springtime bird sightings.
In the 1830s, meteorologist James “Storm King” Espy was employed by the U.S. Army as the nation’s first meteorologist. He believed that heat and smoke from fires would stimulate rain and end droughts. He suggested building huge fires along the Appalachian Mountains that would produce enough heat and smoke to trigger storms and increase the nation’s rainfall to eliminate droughts and heat waves. The fires should be set each week – preferably on Sunday evenings. Espy wasn’t completely wrong, what he was suggesting is similar to cloud seeding.
Cloud seeding is caused when heat from the fires on the ground increases the temperature of the smoke particles. At the same time, the clouds block incoming sunlight (let’s just say, it’s complicated). No one knows the long-term effects of cloud seeding. Today, they shoot silver iodide into the atmosphere. The EPA considers silver iodide a hazardous substance and toxic pollutant.
During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army shot iodide flares in the atmosphere to extend the monsoon season and wash out the Ho Chi Minh trail. This would disrupt the movement of supplies and weapons into South Viet Nam. Operation Popeye was successful in extending the monsoon season by 30 to 45 days, but some scientists believed there were unintended consequences of flooding and typhoons that decimated most of the country’s crops.
The Cherokee are the only people who have been able to successfully control the weather. In order to bring rain during a drought, they perform a spiritual Rain Dance. They perform the Rain Dance to bring rain to nourish their crops, but the Rain Dance also nourishes their soul. It is a very complicated religious dance that follows a specific pattern. The Cherokee believe that when the raindrops begin to fall, they are the teardrops of former Chiefs who fight off evil spirits in a cleansing ritual. The Rain Dance can last for hours, sometimes for days — but it is always successful. It always brings rain, because the Cherokee do not stop dancing until it starts raining. t
Lynda thinks Mother Nature likes the Cherokee. She can be reached at lyndaabegg@charter.net. Opinions in this column belong to the writer only and are not necessarily shared by the newspaper.