James Uthmeier is the latest in a growing list of Republican officials alleging that “cloud seeding” and “chemtrails” are responsible for extreme weather events, rather than climate change.

He has written to airports in Florida to make them aware of new legal obligations to help “catch those who seek to weaponise science in order to push their agenda”.

The letter mentions the “flash floods in Texas” – which killed at least 134 people, with many more still missing – and raises “the possibility that weather modification could have played a role in this tragedy”.

Florida’s new law imposes fines of up to $100,000 on anyone who releases chemicals into the atmosphere in order to influence “the temperature, weather, climate, or intensity of sunlight”.

“In Florida, we don’t jeopardise the public health so that we can bend the knee to the climate cult,” Mr Uthmeier said.