Footage used in viral ‘Hurricane Melissa’ compilation is old

A video compilation which claims to show Hurricane Melissa hitting Jamaica has been widely shared on social media. But it is misleading, as it uses old footage from different events.

The footage, which has been shared on many social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and X, includes 16 different clips of wind, rain and extreme weather, with overlaid text saying “Hurricane Melissa Cat 5 Kingston Jamaica with wind speed of 140mph”.

Hurricane Melissa did strike Jamaica on Tuesday as a category five storm, becoming one of the most powerful storms to hit the Caribbean, with winds up to 185mph.

But using reverse image search tools, Full Fact has confirmed that 15 of the 16 clips featured in the compilation supposedly depicting the hurricane in Jamaica pre-date its landfall there by months, or years. We were not able to verify the time or location of one clip.

The first clip, in which strong winds destroy a building and blow off its roof, was shared on YouTube in 2020 as part of a longer video, with a caption saying it showed Hurricane Zeta which hit Louisiana in October that year. The clip in the misleading compilation has been flipped horizontally.

And the second section of the video, which seems to be part of a built-up area filmed from a high window, shows strong winds blowing rain through streets filled with downed trees. This same clip was shared on TikTok in July 2024, where it was tagged as having been filmed at Ha Long Bay. Full Fact was able to geolocate it to a street in that area of Vietnam.

The third video clip, of severe wind being filmed from a porch, has been on YouTube since at least 2019.

The fourth clip is footage of a tornado which hit a district in Pennsylvania in the United States in 2019.

The fifth clip shows a large tree being blown over by high winds in the middle of a street, and multiple video licensing outlets state it shows a severe storm in Guadalajara, Mexico in July 2024.

In the sixth section of the compilation the roof of a building can be seen to begin to be blown off as a result of extreme weather. This footage was shared on 19 September this year on a video syndication website, with a caption saying it was filmed in Russia.

Additionally the seventh clip in the video being shared matches a higher quality video shared on TikTok in September 2024, with a caption saying it showed a typhoon in Shanghai, China.

We were not able to confirm a location for the eighth clip, which shows a large branch falling from a tree and a flash of lightning. But when we reverse image searched stills from the footage, matching results showed the same video had been uploaded to TikTok in August 2025 (although the video itself has now been deleted).

The ninth clip of a red car being battered by rain was also shared on TikTok prior to Hurricane Melissa hitting Jamaica, having been published on 13 October this year, with hashtags indicating it was taken in Arizona.

The tenth section of the compilation shows a damaged Texaco petrol station, with its canopy destroyed. Full Fact identified the same petrol station also featured in a news video on the impact of Hurricane Michael (from 40 seconds in), which hit Florida in 2018.

We were unable to verify the eleventh clip, which shows palm trees being blown around amid rain and high winds.

However, we found the twelfth clip, where a large item is blown in front of a towerblock, which was shared by an Iraqi news outlet on Facebook in 2023, which claims it showed storms in the UAE.

Additionally the thirteenth part of the video, where a storm can be seen lashing a road at night which has been filmed behind yellow bollards, was included in another compilation shared on YouTube in June earlier this year (although we cannot confirm the video’s location).

And the fourteenth clip, where bins and rubbish are blown across a city street, also matches a video shared on TikTok in June 2024, which was taken in Madrid, Spain.

We couldn’t verify the location of the fifteenth clip, where debris can be seen being blown into overhead lines, but it does not show Hurricane Melissa, as it was featured in another video shared on Facebook in October 2024.

Finally, the sixteenth clip, seemingly filmed from inside a parking garage, was also included in a TikTok compilation published in February earlier this year—and consequently cannot show scenes from Hurricane Melissa hitting Kingston in Jamaica.

We have previously fact checked other viral videos and compilations that use old footage claiming to show current disasters.

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