No, Hurricane Melissa wasn’t caused by the HAARP research facility

In the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, we’ve seen social media posts claiming it was actually caused by the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) research facility in Alaska.

This is completely false. As we have explained before, the equipment used by HAARP is incapable of creating a hurricane, and no technology exists that could generate hurricanes like Melissa.

The posts, shared on Facebook and X, appear to use real footage of Hurricane Melissa, but variously claim that the storm was a result of “HAARP weather modification” or “generated by the HAARP weather modification weapon”.

What is HAARP?

The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program is a high-frequency transmitter which is used to study the ionosphere and the thermosphere, which are layers of the Earth’s atmosphere from around 37 miles in altitude.

The facility’s main instrument is a number of antennas spread across 33 acres based in Gakona, Alaska, which are designed to transmit radio waves into the ionosphere to cause electrons to move in waves to study how the ionosphere reacts to changing conditions.

The facility says its equipment cannot control the weather because its radio waves are not absorbed in either the troposphere or the stratosphere, the two levels of the atmosphere that produce Earth’s weather.

The impossibility of HAARP causing weather events like Hurricane Melissa was corroborated by Dr Ciarán Beggan, geophysicist at the British Geological Survey, who told Full Fact there was “no way” it could be done.

“HAARP uses a maximum of 10 MW of power to transmit radio waves into the atmosphere which is the equivalent power generated by one or two modern wind turbines,” he said.

“Standard TV or radio broadcast antennas on the ground in most countries radiate a similar total amount of power.

“A large hurricane uses hundreds of times more power than the entire planet’s generating capacity so there is just no way that you can create a hurricane with such tiny amounts of power.”

This has been backed by other scientists in our previous checks on claims of HAARP causing hurricanes. In October 2024, when similarly false posts were circulating that Hurricane Milton was caused by HAARP, Chris Scott, Professor in Space and Atmospherics at the University of Reading, told us such claims were “pure science fiction”.

“Hurricanes form naturally over warm tropical oceans. Rising warm air creates an area of low pressure. Surrounding air rushes in, creating wind,” he said.

“The Earth's rotation causes the system to spin. As it grows, it feeds on warm ocean water, intensifying wind speeds and forming the characteristic spiral structure of a hurricane. An increase in the intensity of such storms is predicted to result from climate change.”

We’ve previously fact checked false claims that HAARP caused natural disasters after being “tested on” specific countries, and that it caused a display of the Northern Lights in 2024. People have been making similarly false claims for over a decade.

Misinformation about significant weather events and natural disasters often spreads quickly on social media, so it’s important to verify information seen online before sharing. Our toolkit provides guides on how to verify pictures and videos.