What were those streaks in the sky Monday morning?

• Contrails are human-made clouds.
• They are streams of condensation left behind from airplanes and rockets.
• Exhaust leaves water vapor that freezes into tiny crystals in the cold troposphere.
• Atmospheric conditions must be right for them to form, with the right mixture of temperature and moisture.

Treasure Coast residents awoke Monday to find a series of mysterious, milky streaks across the sky.

The contrails, or condensation trails, streamed in parallel lines toward the horizon as they tapered off into the atmosphere.

The event was accompanied by an uptick in Google searches for "chemtrails" in the area, referring to the decades-old conspiracy theory that the government is purposely spreading chemicals in the air.

What are contrails?

Contrails are essentially human-made clouds. They are streams of condensation left behind from planes flying in the upper troposphere, which is about 11-12 miles high at the equator.

What causes contrails?

Because many aircraft fly at high altitudes, the outside air is cold and moist enough for the water vapor in jet exhaust to condense and freeze into ice crystals, leaving those cloudy white trails.

Contrails aren't necessarily cloud-like streaks of gas, rather tiny ice crystals.

Contrails typically form between altitudes of 32,000 feet and 42,000 feet, most commonly known as cruising altitude.

Not all flights produce contrails, however. Atmospheric conditions can vary, and without the right mixture of temperature and moisture, contrails may not form at the traditional altitude.

Rockets can also produce contrails.

What is the conspiracy theory about chemtrails?

Conspiracy theorists believe contrails are chemtrails caused by the federal government engaging in a secret program to dispense toxic chemicals through the atmosphere for various motivations, including mind control and weather manipulation.

The frequently debunked claim that the government controls the weather resurfaced during Hurricane Milton, when U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., touted the idea.

Despite the purported ingenuity of the government to design such a program, the theory goes that they couldn't make the chemtrails transparent.

What would a Florida bill about contrails and chemtrails do?

Some Florida lawmakers are taking the conspiracy theory seriously.

A bill was introduced into the Florida Senate, called Geoengineering and Weather Modification Activities, which would create a hotline for people to call into when they see a suspected chemtrail.

"What I would like with this bill is to encourage dialogue," said Sen. Ileana Garcia, R-Coral Gables, the bill's sponsor. "I'd like to keep everyone informed, and I thought that the best way of doing so was by creating a repository … to log, track, investigate and mitigate."

Garcia's bill (SB 56) would prohibit "geoengineering and weather modification activities" in Florida.

The bill has passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government with bipartisan approval.

The bill has sparked controversy for validating the conspiracy theory without evidence.

"I've received calls from the press from around the globe, attempting to gaslight me and label me a conspiracy theorist," Garcia wrote on X.

Garcia is used to controversy, as she introduced another bill that would ban local municipalities from adding fluoride in the water, largely in step with Trump administration Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Jack Lemnus is a TCPalm enterprise reporter. Contact him at jack.lemnus@tcpalm.com, 772-409-1345, or follow him on X @JackLemnus.