Fact Check: Viral video of ‘storm-hit Dubai’ is footage from Russian floods

Hyderabad: On April 16, Dubai experienced a significant change in weather as the city received its most substantial rainfall in 75 years, leading to widespread flooding. This resulted in halted traffic, flight cancellations, and school closures, causing chaos throughout the region.

Amid this, a video purportedly depicting the storm’s impact in Dubai is being widely circulated on social media. Click here, here, here, and here for more posts.

The video is being shared with the caption, ‘Heavy rains cause severe flooding in Dubai, highlighting the city’s vulnerability to extreme weather. #ClimateChange #Dubai@wealthcreationsimplified’

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be misleading as the clip is from a recent Russian flood.

We started our investigation by using a reverse image search of the frames of the viral video. It led to a tweet of an X user on April 17 carrying the same visuals. The video appeared with a layered text ‘Scenes in Russia’. The caption read, “Thousands of people have been displaced following devastating floods after major rivers burst their banks in northern Kazakhstan and Russia.”

We also found the same video shared by users on Instagram claiming the video showed a recent flood in Russia on April 12, 2024.

Taking this as a cue, we did a keyword search and found a report on BBC carrying a similar image of submerged houses with only roofs visible as seen in the viral video. The report titled ‘Russia Kazakhstan floods: High water levels swamp Orenburg houses’ was published on April 12, 2024.

According to the BBC report, “Floods in the Russian city of Orenburg have raised water levels to two metres above critical, leaving just the roofs of some houses showing.” The flood broke out as several rivers - including the Ural, Europe’s third-largest - burst their banks. A number flows back and forth between Russia and Kazakhstan.

Taking the search forward, we also found the same visuals in a Turkish media report titled ‘Dam explosion in Kazakhstan: 111 thousand people were evacuated, many are missing!’ published on April 18, 2024.

Lastly, we found the same visual on a YouTube channel of Humam Times TV dated April 15, 2024. The video was uploaded titled ‘Almost 190 settlements in 39 regions of Russia were damaged by spring floods’.

Hence it is evident that the video showing submerged houses is from Russia, not Dubai.