Post falsely links footage of tornado, typhoon to Hurricane Idalia | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Video shows Hurricane Idalia, a Category 5 hurricane

An Aug. 30 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows a tornado traveling across a field and ripping a fence out of the ground. The next clip shows a car driving into a gust of wind and being carried off the road.

"Idalia, though being termed as a Category 4 hurricane, is actually no less than a Category 5 hurricane," reads the video's caption.

Similar versions of the claim have been shared on X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: False

Neither clip featured in the video shows Hurricane Idalia. The first shows a tornado in Kansas in 2022 and the second shows a typhoon in Taiwan in 2015. Hurricane Idalia was a Category 3 storm when it made landfall and was later downgraded.

Neither video shows Hurricane Idalia

Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida on Aug. 30 as a Category 3 hurricane, leaving behind battered homes and flood-damaged vehicles. Officials said as of Aug. 31 one death in Florida was related to the storm.

But the video clips featured in the Facebook post don't show Hurricane Idalia.

The first video was filmed in April 2022 when a tornado struck a man's house in Andover, Kansas, according to local Kansas outlet KAKE News. The news station republished the video on its Facebook, saying the man's house was heavily damaged by the storm.

USA TODAY previously debunked a claim that the video shows a tornado in Silver City, Mississippi, in March.

Fact check: Video of Florida waterspout falsely linked to Hurricane Idalia

The second clip shows a typhoon striking the city of Tainan, Taiwan, in 2015, according to CNN. The footage was captured in August of that year during Typhoon Soudelor, according to The Washington Post. The storm, which sustained winds of 120 mph, blew the car in the video further down the road and wedged it between several trees.

The footage was reported on by several other outlets at the time, including USA TODAY and the Today Show.

Hurricane Idalia was initially labeled a Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 29 and downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane when it made landfall in Florida the next day. It wasn't considered a Category 5 hurricane at any point.

USA TODAY previously debunked a similar video shared by the same Facebook user. The user claimed the video showed the start of Hurricane Idalia, but it actually showed a waterspout that occurred in Florida two months before the hurricane hit.

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

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: More storm footage falsely linked to Hurricane Idalia | Fact check