--- title: "Microplastics Are Infesting Clouds, Affecting Weather" description: "Microplastics have once again been detected somewhere jarring as scientists reveal that these tiny plastic bits may be changing the weather. " date: "2024-11-11" modified: "2024-11-11" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/microplastics-clouds-affecting-weather" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "clouds" - "microplastics" - "the digest" - "weather" --- # Microplastics Are Infesting Clouds, Affecting Weather ![Microplastics have once again been detected somewhere jarring as scientists reveal that these tiny plastic bits may be changing the weather. ]() *Sunset with extreme weather, this tornado-warned thunderstorm, the dark wall cloud hangs low close to the ground while it rotates, Taken near Judith Gap, Montana, tornado alley USA. \Image: john finney photography / Getty Images\* ## Cloudy Skies Microplastics may literally be changing the weather. In a press release, [Penn State says]() that its environmental researchers have found evidence that microplastics may help in the formation of the ice crystals around which rain droplets form, essentially "seeding" clouds unintentionally. Published [in the journal *Environmental Science and Technology: Air*](), this new lab-based study saw Penn State researchers place four different types of microplastics — low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) — in small droplets of water, allowing them to cool slowly to see how they affected the freezing process. The results? The droplets with microplastics in them produced ice crystals between nine and 18 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than those without, demonstrating that rain-producing ice crystals can form at warmer temperatures with these inorganic particulates than without them. Translation: with microplastics changing the way rain forms, they may well be changing weather patterns too. ## Heavy Rain Microplastics keep being detected everywhere scientists look, from the [penises of living humans]() to [buried archeological treasure](). This new study may aid how we understand these [harmful particulates](), and how they [seem to be so ubiquitous](). "Throughout the past two decades of research into microplastics, scientists have been finding that they're everywhere, so this is another piece of that puzzle," said Penn State chemistry professor Miriam Freedman, the senior author of the new paper. As Freedman explains, atmospheric microplastics could both make it rain less and also make it rain heavier. "In a polluted environment with many more aerosol particles, like microplastics, you are distributing the available water among many more aerosol particles, forming smaller droplets around each of those particles," the professor explained. "When you have more droplets, you get less rain, but because droplets only rain once they get large enough, you collect more total water in the cloud before the droplets are large enough to fall and, as a result, you get heavier rainfall when it comes." Though this isn't the first study to posit that there are [microplastics in the clouds](), this study offers more evidence than ever that they may be changing the weather for the worse. "It’s now clear that we need to have a better understanding of how they're interacting with our climate system," Freedman said, "because we’ve been able to show that the process of cloud formation can be triggered by microplastics." **More on microplastics:** [*Microplastics Likely Causing Wave of Cancer in Young People*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()