Since then, supporters of the chemtrails theory have collected hundreds of eyewitness accounts by pilots, police, military personnel and public-health professionals, all backing up the initial theories. All reported unusual patterns of persistent plumes that randomly stopped and recommenced - often far from navigational beacons or established flight routes. One observer, Pat Edgar, watched 30 jets steal the sky over Sallisaw, OK. "They look like they're playing tic-tac-toe up there," he told me. "You know darn well it's not passenger planes."

The press has also backed some of these reports. Some note that overflowing hospital emergency rooms have often coincided with sightings of these formations. The physical symptoms of chemtrail fallout include headaches, fatigue, muscle pain, nosebleeds, twitching eyelids and acute gastrointestinal and respiratory reactions.

Contrails Vs. Chemtrails
Normal condensation trails don't make people sick or leave oily rainbow prisms in the sky. According to NASA, contrails only form at altitudes above 34,000 feet when the air is less than -70°F and the relative humidity is 70% or higher. During 21 days of heavy gridding over Santa Fe, New Mexico, one citizen observer found stratospheric temperatures too high and humidity far too low to form contrails. The only way to create lingering jet trails in warm dry air is by dispensing chemical particles.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) insists such unusual patterns are "normal flight operations." Sure they are.

Global Cooling Experiments
In the summer of 1998, the story broke across Canada when Ontario residents associated widespread illness and short-term memory loss with photo-identified U.S. military tankers spreading X's and grids overhead. Samples of rain falling through the thickening plumes showed aluminum oxide at a whopping seven times government-permissible safe levels.

Some have speculated that the aluminum-oxide residue resulted from global cooling experiments, but if so, there could be catastrophic side effects. Researcher Ken Caldeira worries that cooling the stratosphere would "destroy the ozone layer." He's also concerned about health dangers. Because they can inflame hearts and lungs, the EPA calls particles 10 microns or smaller "an extreme human health hazard." Global cooling advocates have called for spraying 10 million tons of 10-micron particles.

Say It, Don't Spray It
In 2000, the Associated Press reported hundreds of U.S. Air Force KC-135 aerial refueling tankers had been grounded for repairs. The next day, the chemtrail tracking center in Houston noted that daily spraying over the U.S. had dropped from two dozen to just two locations. When the KC-135s returned to service the following week, chemtrail sightings climbed back to previous levels.