Editing Project Stormfury (section)

==Legacy==
In the sense of weakening hurricanes to reduce their destructiveness, Project Stormfury was a complete failure because it did not distinguish between natural phenomena in tropical cyclones and the impact of human intervention.<ref name=HRD/> Millions of dollars had been spent. In the end, "[Project] STORMFURY had two fatal flaws: it was neither microphysically nor statistically feasible."<ref name="Bulletin p. 513"/>

In addition, Stormfury had been a primary generator of funding for the [[Hurricane Research Division]]. While the project was operational, the HRD's budget had been around $4&nbsp;million (1975 [[United States Dollar|USD]]; $16&nbsp;million 2008&nbsp;USD), with a staff of approximately 100&nbsp;people.<ref name="Davies p. 92">Davies p 92</ref> In 2000, the HRD employed 30&nbsp;people and has a budget of roughly $2.6&nbsp;million each year.<ref name="Davies p. 93">Davies p 93</ref>

However, Project Stormfury had positive results as well. Knowledge gained during flights proved invaluable in debunking its hypotheses.<ref name="Davies p. 93"/> Other science resulted in a greater understanding of tropical cyclones. In addition, the [[Lockheed P-3 Orion|Lockheed P-3s]] were perfectly suitable for gathering data on tropical cyclones, allowing improved forecasting of these monstrous storms.<ref name="Davies p. 93"/> Those planes were still used by the NOAA as of 2005.<ref name="Swanson and Williams">Swanson and Williams</ref>

Former [[Cuba]]n president [[Fidel Castro]] alleged that Project Stormfury was an attempt to weaponize hurricanes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2010/03/schooling_ross_douthat_in_conspiracy_theory.html |title=Schooling Ross Douthat in Conspiracy Theory |author=Jack Shafer |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |date=March 22, 2010 |access-date=2024-04-21 |author-link=Jack Shafer}}</ref>