Fact Check: Viral visuals of storm are not related to Kulasai beach in Tamil Nadu but are from Cyprus

Cyclone Fengal made landfall near Puducherry late on the night of November 31, bringing relentless rain and powerful winds to northern Tamil Nadu. Coastal districts faced the worst impact, with flooded streets, travel disruptions, and loss of lives reported in Chennai.

According to an article published in Business Today, three fatalities occurred in rain-related incidents across the city. The storm, the second to form over the Bay of Bengal this season, brought gusts of up to 90 km per hour as it crossed the coastline. The Regional Meteorological Centre in Chennai has warned of continued heavy rainfall until 1st December, with varying intensity depending on cloud cover.

NDTV Published , Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has announced a relief fund of ₹2,000 for families impacted by Cyclone Fengal in the districts of Villupuram, Cuddalore, and Kallakurichi.

During a meeting held at the Secretariat to evaluate the rain-related damages across the state, Stalin instructed officials to distribute the relief amount to affected families based on their ration cards. The decision comes in response to the heavy rains that lashed these districts for over two days, disrupting livelihoods and causing significant hardship.

In this backdrop, a 12-secend video is being spread on the internet with a text “Visuals show a storm at Kulasai Beach in Tamil Nadu”.

Take a look at the screenshot of the claim below.

Fact Check:

The claim is false. This video is neither recent nor related to Tamil Nadu. This visual was actually captured at Ayia Napa Beach in Cyprus.

During the reverse image search, we found this video has been uploaded on imago-images.com with the text “Waterspout Makes Landfall On Ayia Napa Beach”.

A waterspout made landfall on a beach in Ayia Napa, a tourist resort in southern Cyprus on Monday, October 17.

While searching with the keywords, we found the same video was uploaded on weather.com with the caption Tornadic Waterspout Makes Its Way To Shore In Cyprus.

On October 18, 2022, Fox news also uploaded the same video on their YouTube channel.

On October 21, 2022, USA Today published an article on its website with the title, Spectacular view of waterspout heading towards Cyprus beach.

USA Today mentioned: The waterspout made landfall at the Ayia Napa Beach in Cyprus. No one was injured, but some beach chairs were disturbed.

Hence, we found the claim is false. The video is neither recent nor related to Tamil Nadu. We found that the visual was actually captured at Ayia Napa Beach in Cyprus.