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Has Bill Gates created Texas storm? Conspiracy theory claims ‘fake' snow bid to escalate climate change fears

Some people have taken to TikTok to share videos of themselves setting ablaze balls of snow and citing absence of 'melting' as proof that it's more than just snow

Most of Texas is going through a severe condition as the region suffers massive power outages amid a severe snowstorm. While the state struggles to recover from storm Uri, several conspiracy theorists are busy spreading fraudulent claims along with bizarre videos, The Sun reported. Several people have taken to TikTok to share videos of themselves setting ablaze balls of snow with lighters and candles.

Hashtags like #governmentsnow are also reportedly going viral as the people on TikTok claim storm snow is fake and is staged by the government and Bill Gates to escalate climate change fears. A video posted on TikTok showed a woman lighting a snowball with a cigarette lighter and saying, “This goes out to our government and Bill Gates. Thank you Bill Gates for trying to f***ing trick us that this is real snow. You’ll see it’s not melting and it’s going to burn. Snow don’t burn. Snow f***ing melts. No water, no dripping, no nothing. If I put this s*** in the microwave, it’s going to start sparking because there’s metal mixed in it."

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Another clip shared on the video-sharing platform showed a girl collecting a snowball from her lawn and then trying to light it with a tealight candle. When she found the ball was not melting, she claimed the conspiracy theory is right. One more video posted on TikTok showed a person using a hair-dryer on a snowball and claiming, “It's not melting." However, the truth is snowballs reacting to fire like this is completely normal and natural and this process is called sublimation - transformation of a substance from the solid to the gas state, without transitioning into the liquid state.

The appearance of black color due to the fire actually comes from the lighter because the butane, lighter fluid, or solid fuel releases soot, which forms a dark film. The scientific community has refused these bogus claims, but conspiracy theorists believe that Gates - who has studied climate change for years - has created these "fake" snow.

However, this is not the first time, such weird theories have surfaced. In 2014, when snow blanketed Atlanta, Georgia, bizarre claims also made their way. At the time, science writer Phil Plait dismissed the claims and said, “The black scorch marks are actually from the lighters themselves. Butane is a hydrocarbon, a molecule made up of carbon and hydrogen. When you burn it, the molecule reacts with oxygen in the air, breaking the bonds between atoms, and reforming new molecules. If the burning were perfect, all you’d have left is carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H20). But the burning is never completely perfect, and you get other stuff too. One thing that happens is that some of the carbon molecules reform into long chains, creating what we call soot. It’s that stuff that’s collecting on the snowball, not material from the snow itself."

Meanwhile, Twitter was also buzzing with all “fake” snow claims as a user tweeted, “Texans, I know you are hearing on the news about this terrible winter storm. It's all fake. That white stuff you see is not snow! That glistening stuff you think is ice is not. THIS IS FAKE NEWS. You don't need to wear more clothes so you don't freeze. RUN OUT INTO IT NOW!” Another person said, “Not minimizing, the Texas winter storm is awful, but something I keep seeing is baffling me. Ppl looking at crusted snow, wet snow + cold night, saying "solid ice, snow shouldn't do this." But it does? All the time? You guys know the fluffy loose stuff in movies is fake, right?”

“Ted’s pretty good at fake news. Where’s the snow, ice or even puddles?  No one is wearing epic winter storm clothing. Not a large group of people waiting for assistance.  Ted can’t even damage control correctly.  Time for him to go,” a person added.