Does a viral video montage show actual tornados and damage from Hurricane Milton in Florida in October 2024? No, that's not true: The montage is a compilation of older, unrelated clips. Some of them show signs of digital manipulation.
The claim that the video depicted authentic scenes from Hurricane Milton appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on October 8, 2024. The caption for the video said:
Hurricane Milton update 07 October, 2024 #hurricane #hurricane #helene #tropical #tropics #storm #hurricaneseason #hurricaneupdate #weather #gulf #florida #fyb #viral #2024
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 15:57:59 2024 UTC)
Not all the video's clips could be identified. However, those that could be identified proved that the video did not authentically portray Hurricane Milton.
AI generated visuals
A reverse image search showed that the opening shot from the video in question had been online at least since August 22, 2024 (archived here). That means that it predated (archived here) Hurricane Milton, which made landfall on Florida on October 9, 2024, by roughly 1½ months:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 15:35:37 2024 UTC)
One striking thing about this shot was the clearly defined shape of what looks like a tornado, despite the fact that tornadoes typically do not stay in one place and tend to move in a circular path (archived here), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That contrasted with the blurriness of the buildings on the ground.
A closer examination of the shot showed that one of the buildings in the bottom righthand corner of the frame has irregularly wavy windows, placed haphazardly. That is consistent with the unusual patterns frequently present in visuals created by generative AI:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 16:10:18 2024 UTC)
The AI detector tool TrueMedia (archived here) found "substantial evidence" that generative AI created the shot of the supposed "tornado":
(Source: True Media screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 16:36:34 2024 UTC)
A shot with a planted tornado
Closer to the end of the video on Facebook, at about the 48-second mark, is what seemed to be a smaller tornado shot from an unusually close distance from its center (below left). However, the original footage of this shot (below right), uploaded on ShutterStock (archived here) on February 5, 2019, did not show this at all, as can be seen below. That omission suggested that the clip was digitally altered at a later date:
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 19:44:47 2024 UTC; Shutterstock screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 19:58:47 2024 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
More unrelated footage
0:04 to 0:15 marks: This clip from the sequence posted on Facebook was a horizontally flipped version (below left) of user-generated footage uploaded onto Storyful Video (archived here), a social media video agency, on August 18, 2024 (below right). The caption for the original footage read:
Strong Wind Sends Inflatable Slide Flying During Severe Storm in Northern Alabama.
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 16:39:11 2024 UTC; Storyful screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 16:52:02 2024 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
0:22 mark: This shot of a bending palm tree by a pool has been online since at least January 4, 2024 (below right) (archived here):
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 17:12:56 2024 UTC; TikTok screenshot taken on 17:16:31 2024 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
Lead Stories was unable to verify the authenticity of the vortex in the background.
0:27 mark: This unflipped clip showing waves hitting cars (below right) has been circulating online since at least July 2, 2024, (archived here), as seen in the screenshot below (click to view larger):
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 18:01:42 2024 UTC; TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 18:01:15 2024 UTC translated to English by Google; composite image by Lead Stories)
0:33 mark: CNN (archived here) published the original footage of coastal homes facing a storm on February 3, 2021 (archived here). The CNN description read:
A powerful storm sent waves crashing into sea walls and caused flooding in coastal communities from New Jersey to Maine.
The geotag in the top right-hand corner of the CNN video (below right) indicated that the footage was filmed in Massachusetts.
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 18:08:19 2024 UTC; CNN screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 18:12:10 2024 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
0:37 mark: The compilation reused a flipped version of the footage of a home moved by the water that has been online since September 2022. The Washington Post, as well as other outlets, posted it (below right) on YouTube (archived here) on September 30, 2022. The Washington Post wrote that the video showed Ian (archived here), a hurricane that moved through parts of Florida in 2022.
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 00:24:02 2024 UTC; YouTube screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 0:22:44 2024 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
0:41 mark: This clip of clouds above a mountain has been circulating on social media since at least June 21, 2021, as the screenshot (below right) shows:
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 18:55:03 2024 UTC; Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 18:53:16 2024 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
Lead Stories confirmed that the footage showed a view from the highway near the Watergap Car Wash (archived here) in Kentucky, although the origin of the cloud is unclear.
0:45 mark: This piece of footage was posted on X (archived here) on May 17, 2024, by a meteorologist for WTOV News 9 (archived here), an NBC affiliate (archived here) in Steubenvile, Ohio. The caption for the footage (below right) referred to a "tornadic waterspout" at an Ohio lake (archived here) and said nothing about Florida.
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 19:11:59 2024 UTC; X screenshot taken on Mon Oct 14 19:14:35 2024 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
0:56 to 01:00 mark: The compilation on Facebook concluded with a video that appeared to show a view from a car moving through a flooded bridge, with fish jumping out of the water in front of the camera (below right). The origin of this footage was unclear, but, like other clips reused in the compilation, it had been shared on social media platforms long before Hurricane Milton made landfall. One of the earliest examples dated back to February 2023 (archived here). As translated by DeepL, its Portuguese caption read:
I've been trying to understand this video for hours 🤔🤔🤔
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Oct 15 15:11:27 2024 UTC; Instagram screenshot taken on Tue Oct 15 15:03:31 2024 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
Additional Lead Stories fact checks concerning Hurricane Milton can be found here.
