This BLOG often deals with science and weather — hence, its name. As such, the following won’t surprise most people who have read it, and if you agree with the title, feel free to skip this one. It’s for the likely small minority of readers who think “chemtrails” actually are a thing. Unfortunately, the majority (not all!) who spout such talk seem to be fellow conservatives. Sad!

For any “chemtrail” people in my audience, pay close attention. What follows are hardcore facts delivered with a dose of tough love. I care about you and the veracity of our sociopolitical messaging, and as someone well-qualified to do so (see below), want to figuratively slap this one bit of absolutely baseless nonsense right out of your noggin.

Chemtrails are made-up paranoid bullshit. So is any “research” that claims to prove them.

Cloud seeding is completely unrelated, is designed to increase rain volume in totally different types of clouds, and even that is not scientifically proved (nor provable) to work in the real atmosphere. It only can be verified in tightly controlled, boxed-in lab settings that cannot mimic the complexity of the real sky. For more learning on cloud seeding from a real weather scientist (Chuck Doswell, R.I.P., one of the best there ever was), read his explanation.

Fundamental scientific and mathematical reality abounds: 2+2=4, water is wet, and contrails are not “chemtrails.” As explained in this SkyPix link, they are simply hot jet-engine exhaust cooled down fast. First it cools to the dewpoint, condensing the water vapor, then rapidly to freezing and beyond, forming ice crystals. [Condensation straight to ice also is possible.] In an atmosphere just moist enough that the crystals don’t evaporate (“sublimate” in ice terms) almost instantly, they stick around at least briefly where they were laid, forming the contrails, that in turn can be deformed, flattened, moved whole, or fragmented by surrounding wind.

That’s it! You can make contrails too, under the right conditions. On a cold, moist night or twilight, so you can see it better, walk backward or sideways while exhaling. The jet engine of course is far larger and hotter, with a lot more water vapor and exhaling force than your lungs. And it’s very cold up there where planes fly high — tens of degrees below zero, even in summer.

These truths are simply indisputable by rational and sane people. All else is unadulterated bullshit. It’s tiring and discouraging to see this rubbish repeated and spread over years and years, by so many smart but gullible people who should know better, and far too many others who clearly weren’t taught how to think critically, all latching onto the most extreme possibilities dredged from the sewer sludge of conspiratorial fantasy.

Who am I to say these things? As for research, I have published over 100 formal and conference papers in atmosphere science, as a full-time weather forecaster, who also has been a scientific journal editor for 21 years and documented clouds and storms photographically for 40 years. Simply put, I absolutely DO understand cloud formation by type far, far, far better than any chemtrail crackpot claiming to “do my own research.” And I don’t care if some tone-policing nitwit, acting like a refugee from either the Harper Valley PTA or Florida’s worst condo association, thinks that’s “bragging” or “arrogant”. It ain’t, since it’s factually true.

Real science is not about finding some compelling-sounding video by some rage-baiting YouTube yahoo claiming knowledge he doesn’t really have, then nodding your head and saying, “Hell yeah duuuuuuude!”, then calling that research.

I challenge anyone here who has done “my own research” (which is not looking up crackpot websites or YouTube videos, but actual science) to show me your CV with some peer-reviewed published papers. Can’t? Then sit down and learn something from those of us who have. Aside from basic atmospheric physics, a helpful concept to learn would be, how bad ideas spread.

I’m not debating this. I’m typing out the plain factual truth. Can’t handle the truth? Your problem, not mine. Get help.

The final word on contrails vs. “chemtrails” has been written.

Onward!