Project Phoenix was simulation, not proof Hurricane Milton was engineered | Fact check

The claim: Project Phoenix simulation shows Hurricane Milton was ‘engineered’

An Oct. 9 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a 15-minute video about a hurricane called Phoenix heading toward the Tampa Bay region of Florida.

The video starts by showing news reports about "Hurricane Phoenix" and images of its devastation before cutting to a wide-ranging narration that cites numerology while asserting the hurricane is being staged as part of a broad government conspiracy.

“Project Phoenix: The Hurricane They Predicted,” the post's caption reads. “Truth seekers, what if I told you Hurricane Milton was already predicted? Project Phoenix – a hurricane simulation run in Tampa, Florida years ago – literally mapped out what Milton is about to do. It even made landfall in the same area and wraps up around the same date. This isn’t a coincidence – it’s part of a bigger, engineered agenda.”

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Our rating: False

Project Phoenix did not “map out” Hurricane Milton. The project was created to help local government officials and others in the Tampa area prepare for and recover from a catastrophic hurricane’s effects. Experts say there is no way to create or even redirect a hurricane given the energy involved.

Project Phoenix was created to prepare for major hurricane

Although people have tied Project Phoenix to Hurricane Milton, the project is not evidence that the devastating Category 3 storm was engineered. Project Phoenix was created to help people in the Tampa Bay area know how to respond to a Category 5 hurricane if it were to hit the area.

The Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council – made up of local governments in the area – first unveiled the project in 2009 with a document called “The Tampa Bay Catastrophic Plan: Project Phoenix.” The council used a simulated hurricane called Phoenix to prepare the area for a worst-case scenario if Tampa Bay were hit by a Category 5, the most damaging type of storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

The plan was updated more than 10 years later in Project Phoenix 2.0, which included a tabletop exercise and supplemental videos showing the hypothetical devastation of "Hurricane Phoenix."

In real life, the path for Hurricane Milton was similar to that of the hypothetical "Hurricane Phoenix" across Tampa Bay and the rest of the state, and the dates for both storms (occurring in October) were also similar. But it is certainly not a sign that Milton was engineered.

USA TODAY has previously debunked false claims that weather events are man-made. Experts say there is no technology strong enough to manipulate the weather, and large-scale weather events – like hurricanes – cannot be artificially created.

“Major weather events require incredible amounts of energy. There’s just no way that humans can just put stuff up in the atmosphere and cause these events to happen," Charles Konrad, director of NOAA's Southeast Regional Climate Center, previously told USA TODAY.

Hurricanes form when low-pressure areas gather warm ocean air that rises and cools, forming clouds and thunderstorms that in turn release more heat to grow the storm, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fact sheet.

Fact check: Tornado footage predates Hurricane Milton in Florida

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-check sources:

• USA TODAY, Jan. 25, 2023, Fact check: False claim ‘chemtrails’ and HAARP are used to manipulate the weather

• Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, accessed Oct. 15, Tampa Bay Catastrophic Plan

• Tampa Bay Planning, accessed Oct. 15, The Tampa Bay Catastrophic Plan: Project Phoenix

• Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, accessed Oct. 14, Project Phoenix 2.0: The Recovery

• Tampa Bay RPC (YouTube), July 23, 2020, Project Phoenix 2.0: The Recovery

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, accessed Oct. 14, How do hurricanes form?

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Project Phoenix not a sign Hurricane Milton was man-made | Fact check