The video of a monstrous tornado at the gates of a city worried many social media users, taking into account the threat of Hurricane Milton. But the images are not real, they are AI.
A video lasting a few seconds shows Facebook users the destructive power of Mother Nature, with a large tornado about to destroy a city. In several publications and reels it is alleged that this is the Hurricane Milton hits the state of Floridain the United States of America (USA), last week. The images are identified in the post as captured on October 8, 2024.
However, there is several evidence that confirms that the video was created through Artificial Intelligence (AI, its acronym in English). The first is, to begin with, the detection of imperfections in the buildings visible in the images, with misaligned windows and disproportionate dimensions between buildings, which immediately raise warning signs of the manipulation in question.
Furthermore, in the video circulating on social networks, the large tornado remains stationary for several seconds in the same place, when one of the characteristics of the natural phenomenon is, precisely, that move in circlescausing destruction wherever it goes.
Another proof that it is not possible that these images were captured in relation to Hurricane Milton, in the United States, is the fact that they have been circulating on the Internet for several months. A post on TikTok, from August 22, 2024already published the image of this tornado created using AI.
The social network account, called “disastervibes,” is dedicated to sharing compilations of images of artificially created natural disasters.
Fact-checking platform Lead Stories also verified the image and uploaded it to the organization’s True Media website. The application, intended for AI detection, clarifies that “the image shows an extremely large tornado or funnel cloud over a city, which looks very unrealistic.”
Milton, the hurricane that broke several records: “It is a meteorological event that occurs once every thousand years”
“Such formation seems exaggeratedly large and stylized compared to real world tornadoes. “While tornadoes can cause significant damage and have large diameters, this image appears to be a digitally created or manipulated depiction, likely intended for dramatic effect rather than realism,” the review description reads.
Although this image is not real, Hurricane Milton has been described as a “once-in-a-thousand-year meteorological event.” In just 24 hours, “27 tornadoes were recorded” in Florida. In St. Petersburg, a Florida city near Tampa, it rained intensely: in one hour it rained 129 millimeters; in three hours, 230 millimeters. In a simple comparison, It rained in three hours what was supposed to rain in August. It is usually the most humid in St. Petersburg.
Conclusion
Although the trail of destruction left by Hurricane Milton in the US is very real, the images of a tornado hitting a city are nothing more than a digital creation, achieved through Artificial Intelligence. The video had already been created in August of this year, long before the natural disaster that hit the North American state of Florida was predicted.
Thus, according to the Observer classification system, this content is:
MISTAKEN
In Facebook’s rating system, this content is:
FAKE: Claims about the main content are factually inaccurate. Generally, this option corresponds to “false” or “mostly false” ratings on fact-checking websites.
NOTE: This content was curated by Observador as part of a fact-checking partnership with Facebook.
Source: Observadora
