A post on Facebook claims that the path of Hurricane Milton was projected before landfall by the “HAARP Hunters.”

Verdict: False

This footage was made using the video game “Hurricane Outbreak.”

Fact Check:

A pet owner who left their dog chained to a fence during Hurricane Milton was arrested on charges of Animal Cruelty, according to ABC News. At the same time, Tropicana Field, which houses the Major League Baseball Tampa Bay Rays team, will not be ready for next season’s opening week, Sports Illustrated reported.

A post being shared on Facebook purports to show the forecasted path of Milton, claiming that the ‘HAARP Hunters’ correctly forecasted the hurricane’s path. The text brags “@HAARPhunters….Predicted it again! They are steering this storm like a drone!”

This is false, however. This is simply footage from the video game “Hurricane Outbreak” published by Nostrovia. This game allows players to start their own hurricane and guide it to landfall “causing destruction and death” wherever it goes.

HAARP is short for “High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program,” and it is the University of Alaska – Fairbanks’ arm of studying “the physical processes at work in the very highest portions of our atmosphere: the thermosphere and ionosphere.” Some social media users are claiming that HAARP was used to “steer the storm,” furthering the conspiracy theories that the government created and influenced the two hurricanes to hit Florida recently.

🚨HAARP: FREQUENCIES ACTIVE:#REPORT Residents in St. Petersburg all reported the skies turned purple before Milton landed pic.twitter.com/qaGdtQTvlf

— WayneTech SPFX®️ (@WayneTechSPFX) October 10, 2024

Check Your Fact found no proof that anybody was “steering” the storm, and there is no information on the official HAARP website that shows that they made any predictions about where it would land and how strong it would be. The “HAARP Hunters” appear to be a Facebook group that seeks to fight government weather modification. These entities do not look to be affiliated at all.

Milton did not follow the path shown in the misleading clip, either. The viral video shows Milton hitting Florida before traveling north to Georgia and North Carolina, which did not happen. Milton made landfall in the Tampa Bay area before traveling East and heading out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Oh my God why did Milton just ruin his satisfyingly smooth path like that pic.twitter.com/MlVQ16oRnR

— David House (@DavidHouseWX) October 13, 2024

This story was first fact-checked by Reuters.