Story:
Crazy Guy Runs into Outback Tornado to Take Selfie.
Other Versions
1. Man films himself ‘running into the path of a TORNADO in the Australian Outback’.
2. Dare Devil Runs into Outback Tornado for a Quick Selfie.
Analysis:
A video doing rounds online since few years claims to show an ‘epic’ feat where a crazy man is shown running into the path of a Tornado in the Australian outback – just to take a quick Selfie. The video caught attention of wide audience, but nonetheless raised questions about its authenticity. Let us analyze whether or not what is shown in the Tornado Selfie video is fact.
Claims in Video
A man driving in his car comes see what he calls the Tornado a willy willy, gets down his car, runs towards the Tornado like formation, and takes a selfie. As the man approaches the quickly growing spiral of dust, he perhaps realizes it wasn’t a good idea and decides to hurry back into his car before getting pulled in by the spiral of dust.
Origin of Video
The Tornado selfie footage in question originated from a YouTube video published on 19 Aug 2014 in ‘Travel & Events’ category and soon went viral online. It also raised speculations whether what is shown in the video is real or created with special effects. Some people pointed that the man in the video referred to the dust spiral as willy-willy, suggesting that it is a Dust Devil and not a Tornado. Willy-willy is a common reference to dust devils, and generally, they are harmless. However, on rare occasions, the Dust Devils can reach a size large enough to be able to harm almost anything in its path comparable to Tornados.
Real or Fake?
The ‘insane’ footage of a huge dust devil amidst which a man is shown taking a selfie was actually posted by renowned prankster Terry Tufferson, who earlier posted a fake video claiming to show a Man fighting off a great white shark in Sydney harbour. In fact the description of the Tornado Selfie video carries the below message:
Since posting the shark vid I’ve been getting heaps of videos sent my way. I couldn’t pass this one. Check this guy out, what do you think?
Digital Video Experts owner Richard Farr told DailyTelegraph (dailytelegraph.com.au) that the Tornado Selfie video is a very creative fake. When the man in the video opens the car door, Richard Farr says you can see the reflection of the subject (shadow) with a clear blue sky — without any Tornado or dusty background (watch the video from timeframe 0:21 to 0:25 seconds). He also pointed a dark line on the horizon (the line at which the earth’s surface and the sky appear to meet in the video) indicated an editing mask — used to insert another video or effect.
So all that concludes to saying the video showing a crazy guy running into an Australian outback Tornado/Dusty Devil to take a Selfie is not real; the claims in the story therefore are hoaxes.
Hoax or Fact:
Hoax.
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