Chemtrails, A Deep Dive
A Facebook post motivated me to present a sample of opinions and offer theories on what is or isn’t happening above the skies of the world.
Yesterday morning I left Substack and moved over to Facebook and made a “chemtrail” post (including two photos).
In response, I received scores of Reader Comments, comments I think frame both sides of a “chemtrail debate” that has grown far more conspicuous in social and alternative media in recent months.
I thought readers interested in this topic might enjoy being exposed to both points of view - those who think chemtrails are real and nefarious and those who think it’s another ridiculous conspiracy theory not supported by “science.”
This article has Four Parts:
A summary of comments at my own Substack site.
Discussion and comments from other Facebook sites
Examples of how the popular press is covering the “debunked” theory.
Today’s dispatch also includes numerous links and recent treatments of this “debate.”
The excerpts that follow include different replies and opinions regarding several oddities I’ve observed or questions I’ve asked.
(Note: For now, I think chemtrails are “real” and are likely being produced for nefarious reasons which should alarm the public. At worst, I think the public deserves far more answers than we’ve received so far).
Issues and questions addressed include:
Why the criss-crossing trails or strange patterns?
Are these sky trails really new? Or were the same chemtrails/contrails occurring in previous decades?
Discussion of the difference between “contrails” and “chemtrails” and why some trails quickly evaporate while others linger for hours and seem to grow “across the horizon.”)
Is jet traffic greater than it used to be?
As a general observation, I am struck by the similarity between Covid “debates” and chemtrail debates - specifically the effort to ridicule those who question the authorized narrative (that contrails are “normal,” benign, nothing to worry about).
As always, I couldn’t resist adding my own comments.
I also note that, at least for now, Facebook seems to be allowing genuine debate on this polarizing subject - a major change from the company’s policies during Covid. (For example, my Facebook account was repeatedly suspended for making posts that challenged the “settled science” regarding the alleged threats of Covid, the response to Covid and the safety and efficacy of the “vaccines.”).
Note: With a few exceptions, I will use only the first names of those who commented.
Sample of Skeptical comments from my Facebook site
Todd: They are contrails, Bill... you do not have to find a conspiracy theory everywhere!
Curtis: Contrails not chemtrails.
Susan: No big deal.
Dent : Bill, we saw contrails all the time when we were growing up. These are not new and there isn’t some grand conspiracy at play. Contrails have been around and observed and recorded as early as 1918.
Sample of Skeptical Comments from the Facebook site of Wyoming Public Radio:
Poster: This is what happens when there has been a war on science and science is losing….
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Another comment: The fact they were even considering debunked conspiracy garbage says a lot.
Acton: Debunked??? By who exactly?
Anna: Science.
Another poster: I mean they voted for Trump.
Non-skeptic comments/People who agree with me
Note: I have 2,000 followers on Facebook and my posts generally produce very few “likes” and Reader Comments. However, 24 readers hit me with a like and the story generated 59 comments including my own. FWIW, my comments got the most “likes.”
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Jennifer: “Totally unnatural.”
Janie: Absolutely!
Robert: Drove I-20 East towards Atlanta early this morning and watched them being deployed. Being near Atlanta Hartsfield Airport gives a wide view of the planes turning the long trails on or off, versus the planes that just have a normal short contrail. The sky turns from blue to a white metallic haze shortly after
Juli: Yep. It’s been crazy lately! And a lot of people I know, including me, have had burning eyes for about a month!
Gayle: They’re taking over north Alabama, too. (Gayle provided the first photo I ran with this story, plus another photo, which Gayle said she snapped yesterday at 4:07 p.m.
Leslie: James Spann (Alabama’s best known TV meteorologist and a popular FB contributor) has become downright mean calling anyone who questions this chemtrail lunatics. There is plenty of evidence….government patents to show that they can definitely manipulate the weather. Research Operation Popeye as an example. (More info on this operation in today’s Reader Comments).
Genie: I’ve been following this mess for awhile now. After seeing all the seed clouding info and how they are trying to block the sun I became more aware and started going down that rabbit hole. Messing with God’s design infuriates me …
(Chemtrail Conspiracy Kook Support Button)
Sample content from readers who say these white streaks are “contrails”
Richard (from my FB site): Those are not “chem trails”, they are “contrails” which are water vapor heated by the aircraft engines. When the atmosphere has just the right combination of temperature and humidity, the hot air pushed out of the engines turns into long, narrow clouds that dissipate slowly depending again on air temperature and humidity. No chemicals unless you consider CO2 as such. Harmless and non-toxic.
Sample content from people who say, “No, these are different and are chemtrails” …
Reader of Wyoming Public Radio’s FB site: When you have an airplane that has condensation coming from the heat of the jet, it sends out, up to a certain degree, a trail, and as the plane moves it dissipates. When (they are) geo-engineering the sky, they leave long lines that become cloud covered; one is short & another is one (is) a super, super, super long long line across the entire visual sky coming directly from Air Force bases and Air National guard bases!!
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Just Sayn (From another comment thread I found):
For those wondering, Contrails result from the moisture in the atmosphere meeting the high temperature exhaust from jet engines up where temperatures are naturally cold. They dissipate very rapidly seldom more than a couple minutes and usually only a few hundred feet long. CHEMICAL TRAILS are different. They are atomized or nano particles of metals and or plastics, chemicals that reach from horizon to horizon (and) are often done in a grid pattern. They spread-out to cover immense amounts of the sky and last hours, even all day if there isn’t high elevation winds …
Re: The strange patterns in the sky
Note: Many people, myself included, have noted the criss-crossing patterns now routinely seen in the sky. I’ve described these as “tic-tac-toe” patterns, others describe them as “plaid” patterns or streaks forming “right angles” or parallel or stacked horizontal patterns.
Poster from Wyoming Public Radio FB site: Normal vapor trails do not extend horizon-to-horizon or have corresponding trails at right angles to each other! My sky looked like a checkerboard!!!!!!!!!!
Tanya rejoinder: Normal vapor trails do EXACTLY what you are saying. if a plane crosses the path of another plane, it will be right angles.
Another poster asked this question: So a plane leaving a vapor trail from east to west and a plane leaving a vapor trail while flying north to south, won’t leave vapor trails at 90 degree angles?? Why not??
Regarding different lengths of different trails:
A poster who thinks like me: Only a chem trail will last from horizon to horizon. Vapor trails are very short and break up after maybe 1,000 feet in length.
Rejoinder to above: Go back to school. Contrails’ length and longevity depends entirely on high level atmospheric conditions. If the air is dry, they disappear quickly. If moist, they can last hours. Chemtrails are a fantasy!
Leslie (from my FB site): I have never seen the criss-cross pattern ever in my life until the last few years
Bill Rice comment, agreeing with Leslie: The “patterns” are completely different. Someone might say, “We had the same things 10, 20 or 30 years ago” ... but we didn’t see these criss-crossing patterns. Nor did you see the very-common parallel or “stacked” trails.
Richard, who reports he has been a pilot since 1973, rebutted our view (from my FB site): The patterns are simply air routes that cross each other, timed carefully to avoid possibility of route conflict. That’s why they are different sizes (ages) in the sky. I’ve been flying Air Force aircraft since 1973, and it’s always been there.
Regarding Jet Traffic: Has it increased?
To myself, there seems to be more jet traffic, with many of these jets perhaps making chem trails. Several posters at my site disagreed.
Wade (at my FB site): Try looking at FlightRadar24. There are always UPS, FedEx, commercial jets, military jets, and others in the sky. The reason there are so many more contrails than years ago is because there are so many more jets than years ago. It used to be rare for people who weren’t fairly well-to-do or on business trips to fly.
Note: My Facebook follower Laurie provided link showing a screen shot of air traffic above Troy, Alabama at a given time and her comment: “Busy over little Troy!”
My reply to Laurie’s link: I wonder if all these planes are flying at 30,000 feet like the ones I am paying attention to? How many are Delta or United Airlines’ jets and how many are military planes?
Laurie’s reply: When I have some time, I’ll explore… We have lots of chatter about this issue where I live, too!
My old high school buddy Bill O’Rouke provided this info about the air traffic screen shot: The type of plane is listed in that screen shot. B737, A321 for example are flown by commercial airlines.
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Tyler Harris: I didn’t say weather modification doesn’t exist. It just isn’t used to the extent that many believe. Every trail in the sky is not proof of chem spraying. If you want to show me a trail then I’ll pull out my app to identify the plane, its registration, and point of origin, route and destination. Get ready to see a lot of airlines and biz jets.
Wade: … Different altitudes make a difference in how long contrails last. Jets at higher, colder altitudes have longer-lasting contrails.
My reply to Wade: … (On a recent day), I saw several jets (maybe five), apparently all flying at roughly the same altitude - several were making very long contrails that lasted a long time, but I saw one that was making very short contrails that quickly evaporated. Why the difference? The planes, viewed from the ground, were all small and my guess would be all were probably flying at 25 to 30k feet. I think one plane was a commercial airliner making quickly-evaporating contrails and the others were probably military aircraft making chemtrails.
Interesting links provided by my readers …
My Facebook follower Leslie wins the day’s prize for providing the most links to support her opinion/theory. Readers interested in this topic might want to click on the following links:
These days one never knows what footage is real or what might be AI disinformation or doctored footage. However, this link purportedly shows a huge number of conspicuous chemtrails in China.
And this link of another eye-opening video, purporting to show massive numbers of chemtrails in the skies above Paris.
Tennessee passes ‘chemtrail’ bill banning airborne chemicals
Leslie also provided a link to a website for pilots that includes comments from pilots in May of 2019. (My comment: it’s interesting to me there are not any more recent comments at this website).
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My Facebook reader Genie made two posts referencing patents for weather modifications:
Wrote Genie: “You can just go to google patents and search for the weather modifications- here is an example: US20050056705 A1 – Weather modification by “Royal Rainmaking Technology” - “A cloud-seeding approach that integrates techniques for triggering, fattening, moving, and attacking clouds to induce rain (e.g., silver iodide flares, hygroscopic particles).”
US20210352856 – “Aerial electrostatic system for weather modification - “Describes electrostatically charged fluids sprayed into selected clouds to affect rain, hail, snow, fog, or smog.”
Articles that are skeptical of my views …
My University of Alabama Sigma Nu pledge brother Dent Neilson provided two inks.
A November 2025 article from the website science.org has the headline “Airplane contrails may not be the climate villain once feared”
While I only skimmed this article, the lede photo (and caption) accompanying the article is interesting.
Dent also provided, to me, a bizarre and confusing essay from Orion Magazine with the headline “Notes on Chemtrails.”
While the text says this article was written in 1970, this is clearly erroneous information as the quarterly journal wasn’t even founded until 1982 and the author mentions several events that happened in the 21st Century. I discuss my own take-aways from this article in today’s Reader Comments.
His opinion of citizens like myself is clear when he writes: “Chemtrails: 18,600 hits on Google. A lunatic fringe of dittoes, convinced Doom is wafting down on the populace via 747s and DC-10’s. A whole subculture of contrail conspiracy freaks. God bless ‘em at least they’re looking up.”
Other coverage of the chemtrail issue or “debate” …
In my research, I also read a sample of contemporary articles that have provided “fair-and-balanced” (sarc) coverage of the the chemtrail issue. As mentioned, chemtrail articles bear a striking resemblance to Covid articles circa 2020 (almost all of which said the “science was settled” and only conspiracy kooks questioned the experts.
Here is the lede paragraph from the aforementioned article from Wyoming Public Radio:
“Misinformation and confusion fueled a recent Wyoming legislative meeting on how to stop chemtrails, a debunked conspiracy that claims the government is controlling our health with airborne chemicals.”
Another article from theconversation.com from November 2025 featured the headline: “Why the chemtrail conspiracy theory lingers and grows … and why Tucker Carlson is taking about it.”
At the top of the article, the author notes:
“I’m a communications researcher who studies conspiracy theories. The thoroughly debunked chemtrails theory provides a textbook example of how conspiracy theories work.
“Conspiracy theorists say that contrails – long streaks of condensation left by aircraft – are actually chemtrails, clouds of chemical or biological agents dumped on the unsuspecting public for nefarious purposes. Different motives are ascribed, from weather control to mass poisoning.
“The chemtrails theory has circulated since 1996, when conspiracy theorists misinterpreted a U.S. Air Force research paper about weather modification, a valid topic of research. Social media and conservative news outlets have since magnified the conspiracy theory. One recent study notes that X, formerly Twitter, is a particularly active node of this “broad online community of conspiracy.
“Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, whose podcast averages over a million viewers per episode, recently interviewed Dane Wigington, a longtime opponent of what he calls “geoengineering.” While the interview has been extensively discredited and mocked in other media coverage, it is only one example of the spike in chemtrail belief.
Online influencers with millions of followers have promoted what was once a fringe theory to a large audience. It finds a ready audience among climate change deniers and anti-deep state agitators who fear government mind control ..”
“Although research on weather modification is real, the overwhelming majority of qualified experts deny that the chemtrail theory has any solid basis in fact. For example, geoengineering researcher David Keith’s lab posted a blunt statement on its website. A wealth of other resources exist online, and many of their conclusions are posted at contrailscience.com“
CHD hosts a round-table on the topic …
An example of alternative media coverage that does seriously question the official narrative was provided by Children Health Defense, which recently hosted a roundtable discussion on Geo-Engineering. Panelists included Dane Wiginton (perhaps the leading contrarian voice on the subject and the proprietor of the heavily-visited website geoengineeringWatch.org), CHD director Mary Holland and well-known “Covid Contrarian” Substack author Dr. Meryl Nass.
According to previous remarks of Wiginton (described in one article as “a national leader who pushes the chemtrail narrative”), “Weather is being used for a weapon.”
Wigington has been researching and speaking out about the topic for many years. In 2015, CBS News quoted him as saying, “Climate engineering is the single greatest assault on the environment ever launched by humanity, without question,” he said.
I’ll quote myself to finish this article …
In response to my Facebook friend Todd who wrote I should quit seeing conspiracy theories everywhere, I replied: “I’m sticking with my wacky conspiracy theories, Todd ... until ‘someone’ proves them false.”
When my long-time friend Susan wrote on my Facebook page that chemtrails were “no big deal,” I replied, with respect:
My “Spider Sense” says it’s a huge deal. Someone is doing this for a reason. The ‘tell’ to me is that no official is telling the public anything about why this apparent on-going, wide-spread, global project is occurring. Per logic, this silence tells me the reason is nefarious or, if disclosed, would create an uproar or major scandal. The question is what is in those “trails” ..and what is in those trails falls to the ground - and affects the health of millions of people on the ground. Also, as you probably already knew, I’m not inclined to trust the government.”
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See my own Substack Reader Comments for more Reader Comments I culled from Facebook. I would also be very interested in learning more about what my readers think about chemtrails.
… This concludes today’s “Deep Dive.” Bill will now take a weekend sabbatical from Substack (but, don’t worry, I will be monitoring the skies).
Someone might be making fun of us with this photo …
My response to Todd’s post saying that Alabama’s most famous meteorologist (James Spann) is correct to become angry at citizens pushing chemtrail conspiracies:
Bill: “Most of these meteorologists also believe man-made climate change is an existential threat to the planet. My Maxim: Never (blindly) trust the experts.”
A head-scratcher question for me:
If contrails/chemtrails have always existed, why are (millions of) people only recently starting to notice them and talk about them? That is, 25 years ago everyone saw the same long trails and criss-crossing patterns and nobody said anything about this? Suddenly, a new generation sees them and thinks this is odd and starts talking about them and taking photos and videos?
I also keep looking for archived photos and videos that show similar trails in the sky from 20 to 50 years ago. I'm looking at old photos in family scrapook albums and watching old movies and TV shows that show expansive shots of the skies and I'm looking for similar evidence of similar trails ... and, so far, I haven't discovered any such evidence.
It seems like all the scientific and corporate journalism organizations who are intent on debunking this conspiracy theory would produce such photos ... but they haven't ... making me think such photos/film footage doesn't exist.