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In early June 2023, a severe heat wave hit Quebec, Canada. This event brought thousands of lightning strikes that started over 120 wildfires. These fires burned dry forests and grasslands for weeks, contributing to the worst fire year in Canadian history. Across the country, nearly 7,000 fires consumed tens of millions of acres. These blazes released almost 500 million tons of carbon into the air and forced hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes. Although lightning caused only 60% of these fires, it was responsible for 93% of the total area burned.
A new startup called Skyward Wildfire says it can stop these disasters. The company claims it can prevent future fires by stopping the lightning that starts them. Skyward recently raised millions of dollars to speed up its product development. Until very recently, the company stated on its website that its technology could stop "up to 100% of lightning strikes." Most researchers believe this claim is impossible. After questions from MIT Technology Review, the company removed that specific statement.
Nicholas Harterre, who handles government partnerships for Skyward, explained the situation. In an email, he said the 100% claim reflected results seen under very specific conditions. He stated it was not meant to suggest this would always happen. "In complex atmospheric systems, consistent 100% outcomes are not realistic," Harterre wrote. The company now says it can prevent most cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in specific storm groups. However, Skyward has not publicly explained exactly how it works. Harterre only said the materials used are "inert and selected in accordance with regulatory standards."
Documents found online suggest the company is using an older method called "seeding" clouds. This involves dropping metallic chaff into the air. The chaff consists of narrow fiberglass strands coated with aluminum. The U.S. government first tested this approach in the early 1960s. The military often uses this material to confuse radar signals. For instance, fighter jets release it to trick guided missile systems. Old government trials suggest the chaff might reduce lightning strikes under certain conditions.
If Skyward can use this material reliably on a large scale, it could be a powerful tool. Climate change is raising temperatures and drying out forests. Scientists believe these changes are likely increasing the number of lightning strikes, which raises the risk of fire. Sam Goldman, the founder of Skyward, said last year that preventing lightning on dangerous days saves lives and billions of dollars. He called it one of the most immediate climate solutions available.
However, researchers and environmental groups say many uncertainties remain. They question how well the seeding works in different weather, how much material is needed, and how often it must be used. Some observers are worried about potential side effects from releasing large amounts of material into the air. Others are concerned that Skyward seems to have tested its technology in parts of Canada without telling the public. These groups say the company has not openly discussed what materials it puts into the clouds.
Keith Brooks of the advocacy group Environmental Defence said it is reasonable to evaluate new technologies given the fire danger. "But we should be doing so cautiously and really transparently, with a robust scientific methodology that's open to scrutiny," he added.
Skyward's website offers very few technical details. The company says it worked with Canadian wildfire agencies in 2024 and 2025 to show its technology. It also says it has created AI tools to predict lightning strikes that could start fires. Skyward announced it raised $7.9 million recently. Investors included Climate Innovation Capital and Active Impact Investments. "Our first season demonstrated that prevention is possible at scale," Goldman said. "This funding allows us to expand into new regions and support partners who need reliable, operational tools to reduce wildfire risk before emergencies begin."
The company does not use the term "cloud seeding" on its main website. However, a press release from last year stated it suppresses lightning "by cloud seeding with safe, non-toxic materials to neutralize storm charges." Another foundation that gave Skyward a grant offered more detail. It stated: "The Skyward team ... settled on an inert substance consisting of aluminum covered glass fibers, which is regularly used in military operations... and can also discharge clouds." More details appeared in a confidential document released by the World Bank. Skyward's diagrams show planes dropping particles into clouds to prevent lightning in "high risk areas." The company notes it uses artificial intelligence to forecast storms and plan flights.
Harterre stressed the company would use the technology carefully. He said it would be reserved for storm events with high wildfire risk. These events account for less than 0.1% of lightning activity in an area. "Our objective is to reduce the probability of ignition on the limited number of extreme-risk days when fires threaten lives, critical infrastructure, and ecosystems," he said. The World Bank document states Skyward partnered with Alberta Wildfire in August 2024. The tests reportedly produced a "60-100% reduction" in lightning compared to untreated storm cells. The company planned more trials in British Columbia and Alberta in 2025.
The British Columbia wildfire agency confirmed it knows about Skyward's technology. "Last year, preliminary trials were conducted by Skyward to gain a better understanding of the technology," the agency said in a statement. It declined to answer specific questions about the materials or locations used in the tests.
Inside clouds, snowflakes and tiny ice pellets rub against each other. This causes atoms to trade electrons, creating areas with negative and positive charges. Strong winds, called updrafts, separate these particles. This builds up a large difference in electrical charge until a lightning strike occurs. The 2023 fire season was not a particularly big year for lightning in Canada. But it was so hot and dry that every lightning bolt had a better chance of starting a fire. Piyush Jain, a research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, says this is why the fires were so severe.
Climate change is likely to produce more lightning strikes. Warmer air holds more moisture and adds energy to the atmosphere, driving the vertical air movement that forms clouds and lightning storms. "So the conditions are there, and the conditions are likely to increase," Jain says. A clearer trend is already emerging in the far north, where the planet is warming the fastest. Studies show lightning-ignited fires have substantially increased in the Arctic region, and predictions suggest they will continue to rise.
This problem combines with longer fire seasons, warmer temperatures, and drier vegetation. Together, these factors raise the odds of more severe fires and more greenhouse-gas emissions. In fact, Canada's emissions from the 2023 fires were more than four times its emissions from fossil fuels.
Scientists have explored the possibility of preventing lightning for decades. Most experiments happened in the mid-1900s. After World War II, U.S. research agencies and corporations conducted many cloud seeding experiments. They tried to boost rainfall, reduce hail, and even redirect hurricanes. At its peak in the early 1950s, about 10% of the U.S. land area was under some kind of weather modification program.
A U.S. Forest Service fire researcher wondered if cloud seeding could trigger rain to put out wildfires. But a scientist at General Electric, Vincent Schaefer, suggested a different idea: prevent the lightning that starts the fires. This idea started Project Skyfire, a research program in the 1950s and 1960s. Researchers seeded clouds over mountains in Arizona, Idaho, and Montana. After comparing treated and untreated storm clouds, they concluded seeding decreased lightning by more than half. However, the sample sizes were small, and questions remained about the significance of the findings.
U.S. government interest was renewed in 1969. Lightning struck the Apollo 12 space shuttle twice just after launch. The astronauts reset their systems and completed their mission, but it was a close call. After this, NASA and NOAA teamed up on Project Thunderbolt. This project used the same metallic chaff now used by Skyward. U.S. Army researchers had proposed using this material to suppress lightning. The idea is that the chaff acts as a conductor in the electrical field of a storm, helping to neutralize the buildup of static electricity that leads to lightning.
NASA and NOAA carried out experiments seeding clouds with chaff in the 1970s over Colorado and Florida. These experiments also showed "generally promising field results." But NASA eventually grew concerned that chaff could affect radio communications. As a result, the agency ended the program.
So, can we prevent lightning? "In my opinion, it's unambiguously true that this technique can be used to reduce lightning strikes in a storm," says Phillip Stepanian, a technical staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. "With some major caveats."
For example, it is not clear how well it works under all conditions. Researchers also do not fully understand the potential side effects of spreading aluminum-coated fibers over large areas. Stepanian, who co-wrote the history of lightning suppression, says the old experiments were promising but limited. "The sample sizes were small," he notes. "It's hard to draw conclusions."
The core challenge remains: reliably stopping lightning on the scale needed to prevent major wildfires is an enormous technical task. Skyward's recent fundraising suggests investors see potential. But the company will need to prove its technology works safely and effectively across different landscapes and storm conditions. As climate change increases fire risks, the demand for solutions is urgent. The question is whether weather modification can become a reliable tool, or if it remains an unproven idea from the past.