No, German weather broadcast did not show map on fire

What is the claim?

A video of a journalist presenting weather updates from Germany has gone viral on social media with the claim that “German weather stations depict weather maps that seem to be ablaze.” The video shows a screen displaying temperatures in different regions of the country and flames at the bottom of the TV. In the background, a fire siren is also being played. One such post (archive here) has garnered 419,000 views, 1,527 reposts, and more than 4,000 likes at the time of writing. The video was also shared on other social media platforms including Facebook, with the claim that climate change is a ‘scam’. The archive can be found here.

However, the video has been digitally altered. The original video does not feature any flames or fire.

What did we find?

Logically Facts examined footage of the original broadcast and determined that the flames seen on the screen have been digitally added. A reverse image search using keyframes of the viral video led us to a YouTube video uploaded on June 9, 2023, by a YouTube channel named ‘Tagesschau.’ Tagesschau is the news broadcasting service of the German public-service television network ARD.

At video mark 35:14, we identified the same segment as the viral video. The logo of the program "tagesthemen" as well as ARD weather presenter Sven Plöger can be seen in front of a map of Germany with a red background, illustrating high temperatures. Plöger is dressed in the same outfit and the temperature readings on the map behind him also match. Notably, the map does not show any signs of fire, and there is no accompanying fire siren sound present in the viral video.

This showed us that the original broadcast of the weather report has been digitally altered and shared with a narrative against the climate crisis. Logically Facts has previously debunked numerous claims related to climate change conspiracies.

The verdict

The video of the German weather station showing a map on fire during a weather report is digitally altered, and the original broadcast from Tagesschau did not depict any flames or fire on the map. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.