Tornado footage predates Hurricane Milton in Florida | Fact check
The claim: Video shows Hurricane Milton tornadoes
An Oct. 11 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows three clips of tornadoes.
"Tornado in Florida, Hurricane Milton," reads text superimposed over the video, which was shared more than 4,000 times in four days.
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Our rating: False
At least two of the three clips circulated on the internet before Hurricane Milton. One of these features a tornado that appears to be digitally created.
Footage predates Hurricane Milton
Hurricane Milton, which made landfall in Florida on Oct. 9, spawned dozens of tornadoes, but at least two of the clips in the video do not show these events.
The first clip showing a giant tornado behind a white building circulated online prior to Milton, has been attributed to weather events in multiple places and appears to show a digitally created tornado. The video matches a YouTube video uploaded in 2016 that doesn't include the tornado behind the building.
Manda Chasteen, an atmospheric scientist at National Center for Atmospheric Research, also told Paste BN, she suspects the tornado was digitally created.
The tornado is not rotating normally for a large tornado in the northern hemisphere, she said in an email.
"The white buildings are also completely unfazed by the tornado, and there is no evidence of the flow interacting with them," Chasteen added.
The second clip in the video also matches footage uploaded to YouTube months ago. Paste BN was unable to determine the origin of the third clip in the video.
Fact check: Viral highway flooding video doesn't show Hurricane Milton in Florida
Paste BN reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources:
- WREG News Channel 3 (YouTube), May 8, Preparing for severe weather in the Mid-South
- Tornado Trackers (YouTube), Oct. 8, 2016, Hurricane Matthew - Melbourne & Jacksonville, FL
- Manda Chasteen, Oct. 14, Email exchange with Paste BN
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