A viral video showing a strong storm destroying properties has been linked to Cyclone Chido in Mayotte, France.

Frames from different videos were compiled into the one-minute video where rooftops, trees, and containers were seen being brought down by a storm, with flood covering the major part of a city.

The video posted by @World_News on TikTok with the caption “Cyclone Chido hits Mayotte” has garnered over 6,369 likes, 366 comments 2,183 shares, and 1,157 bookmarks.

CYCLONE CHIDO

On December 14, Cyclone Chido hit the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, killing about 35 people and destroying properties.

While Cyclone Chido is not the first to hit the city, it is said to be the worst storm to hit Mayotte in 90 years bringing winds of about 260 km/h (160mph).

The tropical Cyclone which gradually moved from Mayotte to south-easthern Africa has killed more than  94 people in Mozambique and 13 in Malawi.

Cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons are all types of storms mainly characterised by winds exceeding 119 km/h (74 mph). The difference is that the name varies depending on the region where the storm occurs—it is a hurricane in the Atlantic and northeast Pacific, a typhoon in the north-west Pacific, and a cyclone in the south Pacific and Indian Ocean.

While cyclones and tornadoes are intense spiraling storms, they differ significantly in size, structure, and formation. Tornadoes are much smaller in scale, usually only a few hundred meters wide, usually violent, form over land within a thunderstorm, and last only a few minutes.

VERIFYING THE CLAIM

CableCheck divided the videos into frames to verify the claim and subjected each to a reverse image search using Google Lens.

Checks by CableCheck showed that the video surfaced online on July 16, and linked to the Urbandale storm in Iowa, USA.

We found that the video was posted by Fox Weather on YouTube in 2022 and was linked to the Gaylord, Michigan tornado that occurred that year.

Subjecting the video to analysis, CableCheck found that it was from the Missouri tornado which took place in May.

Checks by CableCheck showed that the video was from Hurricane Milton, in Florida that occurred on October 10.

We traced the video to a post on X, where it was linked to a storm in Cuernavaca City of Mexico on May 19.

CableCheck traced the video to Typhoon Capricornin Vietnam which took place in September.

CableCheck found that the video made it online in October during hurricane Helene in Florida, USA.

Checks by CableCheck show that the video surfaced online in 2023 and was linked to the strong winds in Sumaré, a city in Brazil.

VERDICT

The viral video is not from Cyclone Chido in Mayotte, France.