The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →It could affect local conditions, but there is no evidence in the sources available that NEOM has already changed rainfall, winds or desert storms. In a May 2025 Financial Times report reproduced in a Philippine government climate-news roundup, atmospheric scientist Donald Wuebbles warned that the scale and design of planned NEOM projects may affect local weather. He said the potential effects had not been studied enough.
What the warning says—and who made it
Wuebbles, a University of Illinois professor of atmospheric science and a paid adviser to NEOM, said he had repeatedly raised questions about how The Line, planned ski fields and islands could affect the local environment and weather systems. The report identified possible changes to rainfall patterns and stronger winds or desert storms. Another, unnamed member of NEOM’s advisory committee confirmed some of the concerns. This is an expert warning reported by a newspaper, not a published impact assessment.
As reported in May 2025, The Line was planned as a narrow, skyscraper-scale city with buildings up to 500 metres high, a mirrored façade and an initial planned length of 170 kilometres. These are design plans described in the report, not a statement that the full project has been built.
How construction could influence local weather
Large changes to land cover and urban form can affect how the ground absorbs and releases heat, as well as airflow close to the surface. That makes local changes in temperature or wind a reasonable subject for assessment around a large development. It does not, by itself, show that a particular project will change rainfall or storms, or establish the size and direction of any effect.
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The World Meteorological Organization says human activities can affect local and sometimes regional cloud properties and precipitation. It also cautions against claims that development or weather modification can create rain-bearing cloud systems or redirect winds to bring moisture into a region. Local surface effects and control of larger weather systems are different claims.
What the available evidence establishes
The reporting documents a concern, not a measured change caused by NEOM. It says NEOM had commissioned academics to examine concerns, but Wuebbles had not seen their findings. The sources available here do not provide a public NEOM-specific observational attribution study showing that the development has changed local rainfall, winds or storms.
A separate 2025 European Geosciences Union abstract offers a regional modeling example, but it does not study The Line or predict the effects of its construction. Mostamandi, Osipov, Stenchikov and Wada modeled a hypothetical conversion of 320,000 hectares of semi-arid NEOM-region desert to savanna trees. Their scenario produced a summer surface temperature about 0.6°C lower and wet-bulb temperature 0.7°C higher, and required approximately 1.2 billion tons of irrigation water over the summer. These are simulated results for a regreening scenario, not observed weather changes or forecasts for the built project. The abstract also notes potential heat-stress, emissions and air-quality trade-offs from irrigation and desalination energy needs.
Cloud seeding is a separate program
Saudi Arabia’s National Center for Meteorology describes a national cloud-seeding program intended to enhance rainfall, using aircraft, monitoring and operational planning. The sources do not identify this program as a NEOM project or as the basis of Wuebbles’s warning. Cloud seeding is deliberate weather modification; possible effects of construction and land-cover change are a different question.
The WMO’s 14 June 2025 statement distinguishes weather modification, generally local to regional in scale, from climate intervention, which involves global-scale actions and longer timescales. The statement says evidence varies by technique and cloud type, and its information cutoff is June 2024. It is general guidance, not an evaluation of NEOM.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What would show whether NEOM affects local weather?
Establishing an effect would require more than a plausible mechanism or a modeled scenario. An assessment would need a clearly stated hypothesis, suitable measurements and an objective comparison that accounts for natural weather variability. The WMO identifies experimental design, objective comparison and uncertainty estimates as key elements in assessing weather-modification claims; those principles are relevant to evaluating evidence, though its guidance is not a NEOM impact study.
For now, the defensible conclusion is that the project may pose local weather questions worth investigating. The sources cited here do not show that NEOM has already altered local weather patterns.
Quick Recap
Sources
- Financial Times report by Kenza Bryan, reproduced in the Philippine government climate-news roundup, 5 May 2025
- New Atlas summary of the Financial Times report, 9 May 2025
- World Meteorological Organization, “WMO Statement on Weather Modification,” 14 June 2025
- Mostamandi et al., “Balancing Benefits and Challenges of Regreening in Semi-Arid Climates,” EGU General Assembly 2025 abstract
- Saudi National Center for Meteorology, Regional Cloud Seeding Program activities
- Saudi National Center for Meteorology, Cloud Seeding Program
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