Misrepresented content floods social media as Storm Floris hits UK and Ireland
Aggregator account spreads misinformation drawing millions of views
CLAIM: Videos published on social media purported to show widespread damage in Glasgow and the UK as Storm Floris made landfall.
BACKGROUND: Weather warnings were issued across the UK and Ireland as Storm Floris made landfall on August 4. Around 8,000 homes and businesses were without power, according to local news media.
METHOD: The videos used old, unrelated footage from various past weather events that were identified through date verification and reverse image searches.
RATING: The fact-check confirms that TikTok videos claiming to show damage from Storm Floris in London and Glasgow were misleading.
Weather warnings were issued across the UK and Ireland as Storm Floris made landfall on August 4.
In Ireland, eight counties were under a series of yellow wind and rain alerts after Floris made landfall in the country overnight into Monday.
Met Éireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service, warned of dangerous driving conditions, flooding and structural damage in several areas across the country.
Around 8,000 homes and businesses were without power, according to local news media.
The Met Office, the UK’s national meteorological service, issued an amber weather warning for high winds on Monday, in force from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., with high winds reported in both Scotland and Wales early on Monday.
As Floris hit the British Isles, videos and images emerging on social media purported to show damaging winds, driving rain, and destroyed buildings as the storm swept across the region.
Aggregator account spreads misinformation on TikTok before Floris’ arrival
Misrepresented and AI-generated content began to circulate on social media before Storm Floris arrived, garnering millions of views online.
natural.disaster49 (Archived here), a known aggregator account with more than 115,000 followers and more than 24 million views on TikTok, shared two videos claiming to show Storm Floris causing widespread damage in both Glasgow and London.
The account, which encourages users to “Follow me for the fastest and most accurate natural disaster updates,” is known to create compilations of content from extreme weather events and misrepresent the content as being related to events in the current news cycle.
It has a typical style it uses to present video, overlaying footage with the name of a storm at the top of the footage, while presenting the alleged date of filming at the bottom of the clips.
For example, on June 5, 2025, the account shared a one-minute compilation (Archived here) purporting to show flash flooding hitting Brenham, Texas, during severe weather in the region earlier this year. The compilation, which has been viewed more than 14 million times, actually shows various extreme weather events dating back as far as August 2022 in India, Spain, France and Japan.
“Floris”
An immediate sign that the videos are not related to Storm Floris is clear from their publication date, with both videos having been published on Sunday, August 3, the day before the storm was forecast to hit the UK and Ireland.
TikTok users were quick to comment on the videos, with one user saying, “I’m in Glasgow right now, nothing of this nature at the moment. pls just ignore,” while another commented: “London doesn’t have palm trees.”
“London”
Examining the “London” video, we can observe several different clips in the compilation, all showing dramatic hurricane-force winds lashing residential areas.
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The first clip in the compilation shows the roof being torn from a mini market during a violent storm. This is a video that frequently circulates on social platforms during extreme weather events, and has been used previously to describe “thunderstorms hitting Dallas,” a bomb cyclone hitting Australia, and a storm hitting Raleigh, North Carolina. All of these versions of the video predate Storm Floris, indicating that he footage is not related to the storm.
The second clip in the compilation shows an eyewitness filming from a doorway as hurricane-like winds sweep through a street.
A reverse image search of the footage uncovered a post on X by Australian broadcaster 7News Queensland on March 8, 2025, sharing the same footage.
At the time, 7News Queensland wrote: “After keeping Queenslanders waiting, ex-tropical cyclone Alfred is still here unleashing rain, powerful winds and record blackouts.”
This indicates that the footage does not show Storm Floris, but ex-tropical cyclone Alfred hitting Australia in March of 2025.
Another clip, which features in the compilation, shows dramatic footage of a roof being torn from a home as strong winds sweep through a residential area.
Previously verified by the Eurovision Social Newswire, the footage shows a tornado sweeping through a residential area in the city of Meridian, Mississippi, in April of 2018.
“Glasgow”
Much like its predecessor, and having reached more than 1.6 million views at the time of writing, “Storm Floris hits Glasgow, UK” (Archived here) continues the theme of using old, and misrepresented content in an attempt to illustrate events during Storm Floris in a one-minute compilation.
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The opening image of the footage shows vehicles being destroyed as a storm system sweeps through a parking lot.
Analysis of the footage carried out by the Eurovision Social Newswire team earlier confirmed that the footage shows a tornado sweeping through St. Louis, Missouri, on May 16, 2025.
Similarly, another clip within the compilation claims to show Storm Floris hitting Glasgow on August 3, despite no reports of high winds or damage from Floris hitting the region on that date.
A reverse image search of the footage shows it dates back to August 10, 2020, during the 2020 Midwest derecho. Filmed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the originator republished the footage a year later on TikTok.
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A third clip in the compilation purports to show a trampoline being blown away in a residential property in Glasgow.
A reverse image search of the content uncovered a news report by ABC News affiliate WKRN News 2 in Nashville, Tennessee, detailing the incident as having occurred during a storm in Unionville in March of 2025.
Quoting the uploader, WKRN News 2 reported: “David Smallwood sent a video of a trampoline that was blown away during the storm in Unionville, despite having four 30-pound sandbags on it.”
Through this analysis, we can conclude that two viral TikTok videos claiming to show damage from Storm Floris were false. The videos were published before the storm hit and were found to contain old, unrelated footage from various past weather events identified through reverse image searches and archive research.
SOURCES
Tiktok.com. (2025). TikTok - Make Your Day. [online] Available at: @natural.disaster49 [Accessed 4 Aug. 2025].
Tiktok.com. (2025). TikTok - Make Your Day. [online] Available at: Storm Floris hits London, UK today [Accessed 4 Aug. 2025].
Tiktok.com. (2025). TikTok - Make Your Day. [online] Available at: Storm Floris hits Glasgow, UK🇬🇧 with 100mph winds today [Accessed 4 Aug. 2025].
Tiktok.com. (2025). TikTok - Make Your Day. [online] Available at: Flash floods hit Brenham, Texas🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲 today! [Accessed 4 Aug. 2025].
Youtube.com. (2025). Available at: Hurricane@dallasTexas [Accessed 4 Aug. 2025].
Tiktok.com. (2025). TikTok - Make Your Day [online] Available at: Bomb cyclone hits Brisbane
Facebook.com. (2019). Facebook. [online] Available at: Storm hits Raleigh NC. [Accessed 4 Aug. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: After keeping Queenslanders waiting, ex-tropical cyclone Alfred [Accessed 4 Aug. 2025].
Facebook.com. (2019). Facebook. [online] Available at: Tornado damage or injuries , trees and houses were break down [Accessed 4 Aug. 2025].
Staff, W.W. (2018). Available at: WATCH: Tornado rips away roof in Meridian, Mississippi. [online] WJTC. [Accessed 4 Aug. 2025].
Facebook.com. (2019). Facebook. [online] Available at: Just got internet back on [Accessed 4 Aug. 2025].
Tiktok.com. (2025). TikTok - Make Your Day [online]. Available at: #derecho [Accessed 4 Aug. 2025].
Evnsocialnewswire.ch. (2020). Available at: US-IA: Heavy downpours and strong winds lash Dallas County in Iowa – Eurovision Social Newswire. [online][Accessed 4 Aug. 2025].
WKRN Nashville (2025). Available at: Trampoline blown away by storm in Unionville. [online] Yahoo News. [Accessed 4 Aug. 2025].