Hurricane King’s Dry Ice Turn

In October 1947, an Air Force B-17 flew into Hurricane King about 415 miles east of Jacksonville and dumped crushed dry ice into the storm just to see what would happen. The Project Cirrus team seeded the outer clouds because the hurricane had moved away from land and seemed unlikely to hit anyone. The next day, scientists found the storm nearly 100 miles west of its predicted position after it made a 135-degree left turn, strengthened, and later struck Savannah, Georgia. The storm killed one person, caused $2 million in damage, and sparked public outrage and threats of lawsuits before Weather Bureau researchers showed that hurricanes could make similar turns without dry ice.

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