Unbelievable conspiracy theories are starting to emerge about Cyclone Alfred including that it was created by

A growing number of people are questioning whether ex-tropical cyclone Alfred was a natural phenomenon or if it was a man-made disaster. 

The condensation trails left behind aircrafts flying in the sky were actually chemtrails which altered Alfred’s weather patterns, conspiracy theorists have claimed. 

The ex-cyclone initially looked like it was going to pass Australia by before it took a sharp u-turn towards the country earlier in the week. 

Those not content with the Bureau of Meteorology’s assurance that the sudden shift was quite natural instead began turning their attention to a niche US military program from 1993.  

The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) focused on radio wave propagation, ionospheric disturbances, and space weather effects.

HAARP was originally a joint US Navy and Air Force program run out of the University of Alaska. 

Some social media users believed the program was launched by the government in an attempt to understand how to influence extreme weather events. 

Experts however dismissed the idea of HAARP ever having been used in any way which could impact cyclones or other natural disasters, according to AAP FactCheck. 

Vocal conspiracy theorists insisted the supposed chemtrails often seen in the sky were part of a coordinated effort to manipulate weather patterns.

The trails appear as white streams left behind by aircrafts in the sky and Ionosphere and magnetosphere expert Professor Fred Menk said the theory was nonsense. 

Even if the trails were intended to affect weather patterns they were far too close to the ground to be effective, Professor Menk told NewsWire. 

‘Weather at ground level is driven by geophysical effects, mostly solar heating, into the neutral atmosphere much nearer the ground,’ Professor Menk said.

The professor said the impact the trails had on the environment around them was extremely limited.  

‘There’s lots of planes out there, but the volume or area of air that they disturb at any one time, to my mind, is pretty small in a spatio-temporal setting,’ he said.

‘The spatial impact is limited, the time impact is limited. So yes, they are causing temporary perturbations in the atmosphere, unless they, for some reason, amplify and grow. And I can’t quite characterise how that might occur.’

These kinds of conspiracies have been actively discussed online for decades but have recently picked up steam, the World Economic Forum warned.

There has been a rise in climate-related misinformation and disinformation online of late, the Forum noted.

Similar claims were spread when Hurricane Milton hit Florida, in the US, in October 2024.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) dismissed the theories as pure conspiracy.

A spokesperson had to confirm the department ‘does not modify the weather, nor does it fund, participate in or oversee cloud seeding or any other weather modification activities’ in an official statement at the time.

Ex-tropical cyclone Alfred initially formed over the Coral Sea on February 20. 

From there, it’s movements were described as erratic as it moved closer to Australia’s east coast. 

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said there was an increase in tropical cyclones forming in the area since ocean temperatures began rising in the 1980s. 

An average of 11 form each year but usually only four make it across the coastline and almost always by the time they do the cyclones have lost so much strength that they are downgraded to a tropical low – just as Alfred was.