Purported Dubai tornado digitally generated | Fact check

Kate S. Petersen, USA TODAY

September 9, 2024 at 3:38 p.m.·1 min read

The claim: Video shows authentic tornado in Dubai

An Aug. 28 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows what appears to be a tornado over a body of water. Throughout the video, a still image of another tornado appears intermittently.

"Tornado in Dubai," reads text superimposed over the video, which is also captioned with weather and climate-related hashtags.

The video was shared more than 600 times in less than two weeks.

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Our rating: Altered

The visuals are fabricated. Neither tornado shown in the video is authentic, according to meteorologists.

Video shows fabricated tornadoes

Dylan Lusk, a National Weather Service meteorologist, told USA TODAY the tornadoes aren't real.

"Both do not look natural," he said. "For the main video played, the water does not interact correctly with the storm and the clouds are clearly digital."

Brian Ciemnecki, another National Weather Service meteorologist, also told USA TODAY that the tornado over the water "doesn't look right" and the bottom of it looks "computer generated."

Fact check: Weather fluctuates. Hot July in 2012 doesn't show climate change is a hoax

USA TODAY has debunked a suite of videos that make false claims about weather or claim fabricated clips are genuine. These videos sometimes include real footage captioned with the wrong location or date.

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Lead Stories also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

Dylan Lusk, Sept. 4, Email exchange with USA TODAY
Brian Ciemnecki, Sept. 2, Phone interview with USA TODAY

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Tornado in Dubai' video is fabricated | Fact check

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The claim: Video shows authentic tornado in Dubai

Our rating: Altered

Video shows fabricated tornadoes

Our fact-check sources:

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