Question:
I have a family member who says they will never be convinced that these are naturally formed clouds. What’s your take on them?
Answer:
Meteorologists often get asked this, as there is misinformation and conspiracy theories that tend to drown out the evidence online.
As a meteorologist, I can attest that the clouds in your photo are contrails (short for condensation trails) that have spread out under the right atmospheric conditions, plus some other general cirrus in the distance. Although your family member might find contrails suspicious, contrails turning into broader cirrus-like clouds is a well-documented natural phenomenon.
What Contrails Are
- Condensation Trails form when moist exhaust from an airplane’s engines meets the extremely cold upper atmosphere.
- The water vapor (plus tiny particulates) in the exhaust instantly freezes, creating a line of ice crystals in the sky.
Why Some Contrails Spread
- If the air around cruising altitude is already moist or near saturation, those ice crystals have the right environment to persist and spread.
- High-level winds (often strong and in different directions than surface winds) can shear and stretch the contrail, dispersing it into a wider, sheet-like cloud.
- Over time, a persistent contrail can resemble cirrus clouds—which are naturally formed ice-crystal clouds in the upper troposphere. These clouds are “unnatural” only in the way that they are human-induced by plane travel through the sky. If we didn’t fly planes, there wouldn’t be contrails, just cirrus.
Common Misconceptions (a.k.a. “Chemtrails”)
- Some people believe spreading contrails must contain “chemicals” beyond typical airplane exhaust. However, scientific studies and flight-traffic data confirm that when the temperature and humidity conditions are right, contrails can remain visible for hours and morph into large, thin cloud layers.
- Atmospheric scientists have studied this process extensively, using satellite imagery, aircraft measurements, and detailed weather models to show how contrails evolve into cirrus-like formations.
Testing of Chemicals
- Government agencies (such as NASA, NOAA, EPA) and independent scientists have repeatedly analyzed contrail samples and concluded that they’re composed of ice crystals and typical byproducts of aviation fuel combustion—not exotic chemicals.
Why They May Look “Unnatural”
- If you’re used to seeing short-lived contrails that vanish quickly, these persistent ones can seem unusual. In reality, the difference is local atmospheric conditions:
- Colder, moister air at flight level = longer-lasting, more spread-out contrails.
- Drier air at flight level = contrails fade quickly.
- If you’re used to seeing short-lived contrails that vanish quickly, these persistent ones can seem unusual. In reality, the difference is local atmospheric conditions:
I hope this helps! You may not be able to convince your family member that these are natural and not part of some conspiracy – my grandma was convinced of chemtrails until the day she died, no matter how much I explained and showed her the data. Unfortunately, distrust of the government and even of scientists outside the government is currently rampant, making it harder for us to get the evidence-supported facts to people.
This is one big reason why I started AskAMeteorologist – to combat misinformation and to educate those lacking scientific understanding. After all, not everyone studies science like I do!
