Byron Dobson

Democrat senior writer

Is it meteorology or is it mythology?

While it’s been said the Greek god Zeus controlled the skies and lightning, Florida State University's High Magnetic Field Laboratory doesn't influence weather patterns in the Panhandle — even if your Facebook friends tell you otherwise.

It’s not responsible for the scorching heat in the summer, the bone-chilling temps in previous winters and it didn’t have anything to do with diverting a tornado threat from this area to actual touch down in Albany, Georgia, earlier this year.

During his 13 years as director of the MagLab, physicist Greg Boebinger has heard it all. Most of it comes from what he reads on social media or comments on the opinion page of the Tallahassee Democrat.

And, while he prefers scientific fact to fiction, Boebinger appreciates the attention the MagLab receives from the non-scientific community.

“I think the most obvious evidence the myth lives on is the appearance in the Zing! column,” he said. “We seem to get credit for good weather and blame for bad weather. We deserve neither.

“We are happy to joke about it but we’re usually pretty quick to set the record straight,” Boebinger continued.

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So, what drives the weather theory?

“I think people know we have the world’s most powerful magnetic fields; they know they have strong forces attached and so people think we can do battle with the weather,” he said.

But the MagLab is no match for Mother Nature.

“The amount of energy we control is nothing compared to the amount of energy in the smallest of thunderstorms,” Boebinger said. “Hurricanes are way out of our league.”

Boebinger said the tweets, Facebook posts, Zing!s and questions asked during annual tours show there is interest in the lab. The research being done at the Innovation Park lab attracts scientists from all over the world.

“I think the pride in the MagLab keeps bringing us to mind when people think of big energy and big science,” he said.

But facts are facts.

“The MagLab does create amazing magnetic fields - the strongest in the world - but those fields are created in an extremely small space,” Boebinger said. “Even our largest magnetic fields are only present in a region of space that is only a few inches in length. That region of space is located inside the large, well-insulated magnet container. Standing merely 10 feet away from one of these magnets won’t even affect the magnetic strip on the credit card in your pocket – much less the weather patterns in the sky.”

When asked what kind of magnetic field it would take to influence weather, Boebinger injected a bit of humor — and fact.

“Even if we could somehow magically project impossibly-strong magnetic fields into the sky, magnetic fields cannot affect wind or rain...not even in the teeniest, tiniest way,” he said. “Although, now that I think about it, crazy-strong magnetic fields in the sky would bend lightning bolts into weird spiraling shapes.

“So don’t go asking us to turn on the magnets to redirect hurricanes away from the Panhandle (that has really happened!),” he said. “We’d love to help, but we simply don’t have the capability.”

Contact senior writer Byron Dobson at bdobson@tallahassee.com or on Twitter @byrondobson.

MagLab weather bubble

Does the Florida State University MagLab detour bad weather from Tallahassee? Social media seems to think so.

MagLab Highlights