Weather Can Be Magnet for Conspiracy Theories and Disinformation
As last week’s power blackout in Iberia shows, weather can attract disinformation as simplistic explanations and conspiracy theories are spread on social media.
When a massive blackout plunged Iberia into darkness last week, one theory pinned it on a “rare atmospheric phenomenon,” fueled by extreme temperature variations in Spain that triggered oscillations in high-voltage transmission lines.
The explanation — attributed to Portugal’s grid operator Redes Energéticas Nacionais — caught fire and spread in news reports and across social media. Meteorologists scrambled to look at computer models, maps and weather data to see if something in the atmosphere had caused power lines to “gallop” uncontrollably, a phenomenon known to occur under the right conditions.