Does a video show "twin tornadoes" hitting Miami at the same time Hurricane Milton did? No, that's not true: This video footage was taken in August 2024, not October 2024 when Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida. Also, the columns seen in the video are waterspouts, not tornadoes, according to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration. Finally, this video was taken in Palm Beach, Florida, not Miami.
The claim appeared in a post on X (archived here) on October 9, 2024. The caption read:
🔥🚨BREAKING: Hurricane Milton has officially made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida. The footage of the twin tornadoes that hit Miami this afternoon is both terrifying and unbelievable! 🙏
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Oct 10 13:44:09 2024 UTC)
A reverse image search (archived here) of a still from the video led Lead Stories to an August 22, 2024, Facebook post (archived here) from meteorologist Matt Devitt. The video in his post is the same video seen in the claim. The caption on Devitt's Facebook post read:
*TWIN WATERSPOUTS* spotted dancing around each other today off the coast of Palm Beach, Florida!
Credit: Elizabeth Hoadley
Palm Beach is roughly an hour and 11 minute drive from Miami, according to Google. Evidence of this is below:
(Source: Google screenshot taken on Thu Oct 11 15:39:42 2024 UTC)
The August 2024 waterspouts were covered by news outlets when they happened. Here and here are two examples of news reports. Because the waterspouts appeared in August 2024, Hurricane Milton was still weeks away.
According to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), waterspouts are "whirling column[s] of air and water mist." There are two main types of waterspouts: tornadic and fair weather. The difference between the two is that tornadic waterspouts form over water (or move from land to water), while fair weather waterspouts form from clouds. More information on waterspouts from NOAA can be found here.
Lead Stories searched for recent news stories mentioning "'twin tornadoes'" and "Miami, Florida" and "video" and "October 2024" on Google News. We found no actual news reports, credible sources or documents that would confirm the claim (archived here).
At the time of writing, Hurricane Milton had made landfall just weeks after Hurricane Helene. Helene caused deadly flooding in western North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and other states.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims concerning Hurricane Milton are here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims regarding Florida are here.
