Old and edited visuals passed off as Hurricane Milton in Florida

Context 

A compilation of tornadoes striking cities and damaging buildings is being shared to claim it shows the effects of Hurricane Milton in Florida. 

An Instagram user shared a video (archived here) with text overlaid on it that says, "Hurricane Milton is a once-in-a-century storm with a wind speed of 12 Coming to West Florida," along with the date October 8, 2024. Similar claims are here, here, and here. 

Screenshots of the video shared by social media users claiming to show the effects of Hurricane Milton in Florida. (Source: Instagram/YouTube/X/Modified by Logically Facts)

The video was shared as Hurricane Milton hit Florida's coast on October 9. However, the visuals are not from Florida and predate Hurricane Milton. 

What we found 

Video one

Logically Facts has previously fact-checked the first video in the compilation — of a supposed tornado behind a building — and found it to be a computer-generated tornado added to a video first uploaded to Shutterstock. You can read our fact-check from 2023 here. 

Comparison of the buildings and signboards in the claim (left) and the Shutterstock video (right). (Source: Shutterstock/Instagram)

Video two

The second clip was first shared on TikTok (archived here) on September 28, 2022. It was captioned "Andover, Kansas 29/04/2022." 

The same buildings, billboards, and traffic crossing are in the 2022 TikTok video and the viral post. (Source: TikTok/Instagram)

We geolocated the location seen in the video to U.S. Route 400, 513 S, Andover Road, in Kansas. The now-viral visual is from Kansas and predates Hurricane Milton. 

Video three

The third clip shows a metal roof being ripped off a house amid heavy rain and winds, with a slow-moving tornado spinning in the background. However, this video also predates Hurricane Milton and is six years old.

The original video was shared on YouTube by a channel named Tornado Trackers on October 13, 2018 (archived here) with the caption "Extreme 4K Video of Category 5 Hurricane Michael." The description says it shows "Cat 5 Hurricane Michael as it slammed Panama City Beach with extreme wind." At the 0:46-second mark, we can see the same visuals. However, this video does not have the tornado in the background. 

Comparison of the building in the claim posts (left) and the 2018 video (right). (Source: Instagram/YouTube).

Video four

Through a reverse image search, we found the same video (archived here) posted to Kansas-based media outlet KSN TV's YouTube channel, dated April 29, 2022. It is captioned "Andover, KS tornado video, April 29, 2022 (Courtesy: Dave Jackson)." 

The screenshot from the viral post (left) and the KSN TV clip (right) show the same video. (Source: Instagram/YouTube)

Video five

The last video shows lightning appearing to strike what resembles a football pitch. However, the lightning seemingly melts into a black liquid and appears unnatural, digitally edited, and artificially generated. 

We also found the clip in a 2023 compilation video on TikTok (archived here) and in this March 26, 2024 Instagram post (archived here). This indicates that the video is not genuine and predates Hurricane Milton.  

The verdict 

A series of old videos from 2018, 2022, and 2023 have been misrepresented as Hurricane Milton on October 9, 2023.