A stunning timelapse video shot in 2020 capturing rain clouds descending on Perth, Australia is being peddled online as footage of a cloudburst in Bengaluru.
The city of Bengaluru, is in the news following water-logging and disruption of normal life after facing unprecedented amount of rainfall in a short span earlier this week. Shocking visuals showing cars submerged in parking lots, and rainwater breaching bungalows and tech parks in the city have flooded social media. Destruction of wetlands through rampant construction is being blamed for the breakdown of the city's civic infrastructure. According to reports, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted more rainfall in Bengaluru till September 9.
Against this backdrop, the timelapse video is being shared linking it to Bengaluru. A timelapse video usually captures motion that takes place gradually such a the moving of clouds, or the blossoming of a flower, and shows it in a speeded up manner.
The 13-second video has been shared widely on Facebook with a caption in English reads, "Someone took a timelapse video of the cloud burst yesterday in Bangalore. Spectacular and scary too."
The video also shared on Instagram as 'Reel' and also on YouTube with the same claim.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on Yandex - a Russian search engine, which led us to an 2020 article published on Weather.com.
The weather bulletin was titled as, "Time-Lapse Shows Wrath of Severe Storm in Australia."
The video was credited to Kane Artie/Severe Weather Australia. The date and location mentioned in the video were February 25, 2020 Perth, Australia.
With the keywords search on Google we found that the original video of 29 seconds posted by Kane Artie himself on Facebook on February 25, 2020.
The description of the video states it was shot at the viewing area at Perth Airport.
The video was also reposted on Artie's Facebook Timeline on August 2, 2022 stating that the video was taken in 2020. On August 1, 2022 the video was reposted on Artie's Instagram profile.
The Instagram bio for Artie's account reads he is a photographer based in Perth who specialises in landscape, timelapse and drone photography.
A comparison of screen grabs from the viral video and Artie's video can be seen below.
We also reached out to Artie for further confirmation about the video. Speaking to BOOM, Artie said, "Yes this was shot in Perth just over 2 years ago now".