A snowstorm that threatens to affect voting in Monday's Iowa caucuses was caused by former Defense Department research equipment, according to a conspiracy theory on social media.
Some have claimed that the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) system in Gakona, Alaska, was being used to prevent Donald Trump supporters from voting.
This past Friday, Laura Loomer, a conservative political activist and MAGA Republican, alleged that the "deep state" was "using HAARP to rig the Iowa Caucus," adding that the snowstorm "looks like weather manipulation to me." Her post on X (formerly Twitter) has since been viewed 2.4 million times.
Since her post, several other X users have made similar claims, and their posts have racked up thousands of views.
However, many other users—including those who say they are in Iowa—have ridiculed the theory, describing the winter weather as typical for the Midwest. "Sometimes a blizzard in January is just a blizzard in January," one wrote.
The HAARP system has long been a subject of interest among conspiracy theorists, who have claimed it can be used to manipulate the weather. But scientists say that neither HAARP nor any other human-made system is capable of changing the weather at that scale.
"HAARP is not able to influence weather and certainly not the [caucuses]," Keith Groves, associate director of the Institute for Scientific Research at Boston College, told Newsweek.
"It is a totally absurd notion," Charles Konrad, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southeast Regional Climate Center in North Carolina, told Newsweek. "This snowstorm, like any other weather event, was caused by an array of natural atmospheric factors coming together over a large area. There is no human technology, as far as I know, that could influence these factors in an appreciable way."
The HAARP array uses a radio transmitter to temporarily excite particles in a limited area of the ionosphere—the upper part of the Earth's atmosphere. It was devised as a research instrument in the early 1990s to study the ionosphere and how it is affected by solar waves from the sun, which can have an impact on communications and electrical systems.
After the government no longer wished to bear the cost of the program, ownership of HAARP was transferred in 2015 to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
"Their only interest is in defining useful experiments to test theories of radio wave propagation and wave-plasma interactions," Groves said.
"HAARP cannot affect the weather, in Iowa or anywhere," Jessica Matthews, HAARP director at the University of Alaska, told Newsweek. "The reason is simple science.
"Radio waves in the frequency ranges in which HAARP transmits are not absorbed in either the troposphere or the stratosphere—the two levels of the atmosphere that produce Earth's weather. Since there is no interaction, there is no way to control the weather."
She described the HAARP system as "basically a large radio transmitter" that produces radio waves that "interact with electrical charges and currents and do not significantly interact with the troposphere."
"HAARP's interests are in scientific research of the natural environment, not political influence," Matthews said.
The winter storm that has brought heavy snow to Iowa initially developed over the western central states, bringing blizzard conditions to the region earlier in the week, before shifting northeastward and carpeting much of the northern central U.S. in snow.
The National Weather Service said that a prolonged Arctic blast of cold air from Canada—which is expected to persist through the week—was facilitating the continued effects of hazardous winter weather.
Update 1/16/24, 11:00 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from Charles Konrad.
Update 1/17/24, 3:25 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from Jessica Matthews.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Aleks Phillips is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter based in London. His focus is on U.S. politics and the environment. ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
