2020 video from Perth, Australia being shared as Bengaluru cloudburst

Many parts of Bengaluru were inundated after the city received extremely heavy torrential rain over the past week. The Press Trust of India reported that Bengaluru City observatory of the India Meteorological Department recorded 251.4 mm of rainfall between September 4 and September 7, including 131.6 mm on the 4th, the highest 24-hour precipitation in September in 34 years.

Against this backdrop, a 13-second time-lapse video of a cloudburst is being shared widely on social media claiming that it is from Bengaluru.

Twitter user Zeenat Dar, who identifies herself as a psychologist and journalist, tweeted the clip saying it showed a cloudburst in Bangalore on September 4.

Bangalore cloud burst timelapse gripping video of 04 Sep 2022 as claimed #bangalorefloods #bangaloreflood #bangalore #timelapse pic.twitter.com/4cKxDoACZ6

— Zeenat Dar (@zeenat_daar93) September 8, 2022

Another handle by the name of BackBencher tweeted the video on September 7 and wrote “Someone took a timelapse video of the cloud burst yesterday in Bangalore. Spectacular and scary too.”

ᴍʏ ғʀɪᴇɴᴅ ғʀᴏᴍ ʙᴀɴɢᴀʟᴏʀᴇ ᴠɪᴀ ᴡʜᴀᴛsᴀᴘᴘ Someone took a timelapse video of the cloud burst yesterday in Bangalore. Spectacular and scary too.
😨😨😟😟🧐🧐🧐👇 pic.twitter.com/oyhM3OAfzT

— 𝑩𝒂𝒄𝒌𝑩𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒓🔖 (@Bckbncher) September 7, 2022

Many other handles on the micro-blogging site shared the same video claiming it was from Bangalore.

On Facebook, a user named Shantanu Basu shared the same video. “Someone took a timelapse video of the cloud burst yesterday in Bangalore. Spectacular and scary too.”, he wrote. The post was shared close to 80 times.

Alt News received multiple requests on its helpline number +91 76000 11160 to check the authenticity of the clip.

Fact-Check

On reverse searching the keyframes of the video and doing a keyword search using Google and Yandex, Alt News found that the video was posted on Facebook by Kane Artie, a landscape photographer based in Perth, Western Australia. Sharing the 29-second video on the Kane Artie Photography page on February 25, 2020, he described his experience of shooting it. He wrote:

“Well this afternoons front that rolled in was something else! I made a last minute dash down the road to the viewing area at the Perth Airport as I knew I would have a nice open area to shoot. So glad I did. I got absolutely drenched running back down the ramp, and nearly got blown over with the gusts that came through. I had to hang on to the fence to stay on my feet. Was it worth it….. Hell yes”

We also found that Higgins Storm Chasing, a website providing weather forecasts, warnings, updates, photos & videos from across Australia, shared Kane Artie’s post on the same day and wrote:

“WOW! Incredible footage of severe storms impacting Perth this afternoon. Amazing capture of the wall of water cascading down from the clouds as the storms entered the City region.”

To confirm the origin of the video, we reached out to Kane Artie, the photographer, and shared the clip with him. “Yes, it was shot by me here in Perth in February 2020,” he told Alt News.

Hence, it is evident that the video being shared on social media as showing a cloudburst in Bengaluru is fake. It is, in actuality, a video of a cloudburst in Perth, Australia on February 25, 2020.