FIU Prof. Hugh Willoughby on battling hurricanes – Time.com


In a recent Time.com article, FIU’s own Hugh Willoughby weighed in on Bill Gates’ plan to control hurricanes. (The Microsoft founder has proposed redirecting or shrinking hurricanes by cooling the waters where they are generated.)

“Hugh Willoughby, acknowledged as the ‘guru of hurricane modification’ and now a professor at Florida International University, dismisses the plan as ‘junk science.’ The cost and logistics don’t add up, he says, estimating that it would take tens of thousands of the giant tubs put in the water within 24 hours of the storm’s arrival. Others think the whole idea of trying to dissipate hurricanes before they start is misguided. Bob Atlas, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Miami, points out that hurricanes, as devastating as they can be, do serve some good, by helping ward off droughts, and that tampering with them could have untold environmental ramifications.”

Willoughby is a research professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Florida International University, where he teaches meteorology in the recently established atmospheric sciences track. His hurricane-research interests include analysis of aircraft observations, formulation of theoretical models of motion and intensification, and analysis of economic and human impacts.