Seventy three years ago, on this day, June 8th,
“Flint-Worcester Tornado Outbreak Sequence.” On 8 and 9 June 1953, two of the deadliest tornadoes in US history destroyed their eponymous towns in Michigan and Massachusetts.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 313ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 432ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context for this was that after World War Two, with its enormous technological advances, including atomic bombs, but also jet engine development, radar, sonar, you name it, the idea that you could control the weather was becoming plausible. In 1946 there had been a secret meeting about weather modification (that, two days later, had ended up on the front page of The New York Times). And there was all sorts of talk about deliberately melting ice caps, etc, etc. There was huge public alarm at atomic bombs and also hydrogen bombs, which were a thing by this stage.
The specific context was that there had been atmospheric atomic bomb tests in New Mexico, a week earlier, and now these two tornadoes. People took the boffins at their word and said that it was possible to influence the weather.
What I think we can learn is this: your rhetoric of control will be heard, and then you will be held responsible or blamed for stuff that you actually didn’t do, couldn’t have done.
What happened next: There was an attempt to hold hearings about possible influences of the atomic bombs. This attempt to hold hearings was defeated, but the scepticism and the concern about where the control continued.
“Growing demands that the AEC be held accountable for the disaster prompted a Massachusetts congressional representative, Edith Rogers, to file a resolution calling for a congressional inquiry. The House Committee on Armed Services held a hearing to consider Rogers’s motion on 23 June [1953], in which statements from all the branches of the Armed Forces, the Federal Civil Defense Agency, and USWB unanimously agreed that there was no connection between the two. The committee denied the motion.” https://www.environmentandsociety.org/arcadia/tornado-was-not-bombs-child-politics-extreme-weather-age-atmospheric-nuclear-weapons-testing
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
May 28, 1954 – Will we control the weather?!
December 9, 1955 – Tribune writes on carbon dioxide and Weather Control
You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
If you want to get involved, let me know.
If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).
Also on this day:
June 8, 1981- “the First Detection of Carbon Dioxide Effect” workshop begins – All Our Yesterdays
June 8, 1990 – Greenpeace versus the polluters – All Our Yesterdays
June 8, 1997 – US oil and gas versus Kyoto Protocol, planet – All Our Yesterdays