‘Shocking’ video of heavy snowfall in Philippines is a fake

Two days ago, a 'shocking' video started making rounds on the internet, showing a report from Rodsburgh News Live about heavy snowfall in the tropical islands of the Philippines, on Tuesday, July 23rd.

However, whereas this could have been a terrible portent of things to come due to climate change (as the snowstorm happening in India in The Day After Tomorrow was supposed to be), this video actually turns out to be a fake.

Robert Speta, a meteorologist with the Japanese news service NHK World, spotted the video and did a little digging to check out this incredible news, but what he found was less incredible and more suspicious.

Running though a point-by-point review of the video on his blog, Speta pointed out the inconsistencies, including no corroborating sources (not even on Twitter!), the Christmas decorations seen in the video, and the 'bizarre' commentary that mentioned how the area wasn't yet experiencing fall, even though the southern Philippines doesn't experience big seasonal changes (being so close to the equator).

The video, he says, was likely "shot at some resort in the north during winter," or it "could be ash in 2009 around Christmas during a eruption at Mt. Mayon." The latter would certainly explain the Christmas decorations.

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Well, if RBNews is a fledgling news agency, that's one way to try to break into the business. However, besides being noticed, but it's probably good to check your sources as well.

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