Edited video of Hurricane Matthew in 2016 falsely shared as Milton

"Terrifying. Hurricane Milton in Florida," read a Thai-language X post that shared the edited video on October 10, 2024.

The post shared a dramatic video appearing to show a whirlwind swirling over a building and a bolt of lightning.

Hurricane Milton blasted ashore in Florida on October 9 with strong winds, rain and storm surge, leaving at least 16 people dead and millions without power (archived link).  

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Screenshot of the false X post, taken on October 16, 2024

The clip attracted more than 800,000 views in similar posts across Facebook and TikTok.

However, the video was edited from footage of Hurricane Matthew in 2016. 

Hurricane Matthew

A reverse image search of the video found it corresponds to a YouTube video from March 8, 2017 -- but without the dramatic whirlwind or lightning (archived link).

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Screenshot comparison between the false X post (left) and the original video on Tornado Trackers (right)

A tornado and lightning were digitally added to the footage, which was taken from the 59:25 mark of the video posted by Tornado Trackers. 

According to the YouTube video's caption, the footage shows Hurricane Matthew on October 7, 2016 in Jacksonville, Florida.

AFP confirmed the video was filmed on Jacksonville Beach by comparing the footage to Google Street View images from the area (archived link). 

The storm reached the maximum category five as it struck the Caribbean and the southeast US coast, killing more than 500 people in Haiti alone (archived link).

The unedited video is also available on the Adobe Stock website (archived link).

Edited versions of the video have previously been shared online as footage of the Taiwan earthquake in April 2024 and Cyclone Hidaya, which made landfall in Tanzania in May.