Claim: A video shows a cloudburst from the recent deadly floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Fact: The video is likely AI-generated.
In the aftermath of the recent deadly floods in Pakistan’s northwestern areas, a Facebook user shared a video claiming it shows a cloudburst occurring somewhere in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The text embedded in the video states [translated from Urdu]: “Scenes of cloudburst in KPK. This is how the flooding happened [sad emoji]”.
A cloudburst is defined as “an event over a concentrated area of 30sqkm or less with rain falling at a rate of 100mm or more per hour,” according to a report by The Guardian that quoted Indian meteorologists.
Recently, cloudbursts and prolonged rainfall have devastated regions across South Asia, including Pakistan, resulting in flash floods and landslides.
Although cloudbursts have been reported in Pakistan, this article only fact-checks whether the video depicting this natural phenomenon in the claim is genuine.
Flooding and landslides in Pakistan
This year, flash floods and landslides following monsoon rains have devastated several districts in Pakistan, particularly in the North and Northwest.
Cloudbursts in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, in July 2025 caused flash floods and landslides, resulting in road blockages and the destruction of a dozen homes, agricultural crops, and properties in Gilgit and Ghizer.
Punjab remains on high alert as it faces a flooding risk from key rivers, namely the Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej, which have swollen due to extensive rains, and after India released water into Pakistan.
Since 26 June, at least 819 people have died across Pakistan, and another 1,111 have been injured, according to the latest situation report by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the death toll has risen to 479 deaths, which is just under half of the total casualties from the entire country.
Buner district in Malakand, KP was hit the hardest, with at least 237 reportedly dead as of 22 August, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
According to Dawn, which cited a report by the humanitarian aid organisation Islamic Relief, 60% of families have lost their livelihoods due to the flash floods. “The Islamic Relief’s emergency response team is on the ground distributing food and water, and the team’s assessment found that 73 per cent of houses are destroyed or partially damaged; sixty per cent of people in Buner and 53 per cent in Swat are now unable to support their families; eighty per cent of agricultural land in Buner has been damaged; nearly 50 per cent of livestock animals have died and been washed away,” the report added.
A BBC team visiting the flood-affected areas saw scenes of destruction on the way to “Buner’s Pir Baba Bazaar”, where “crops lay flattened on both sides of the road…Trees were uprooted and vehicles were in ruins – sometimes stuck in mud, sometimes in walls.”
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s provincial government has declared an emergency in the most affected districts, which will remain in place until 31 August.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the video but found no evidence about the origin of the clip, raising suspicions that it may be fake. Then, an analysis revealed that the footage was AI-generated.
At the bottom right of the footage from the claim, a “Veo” watermark is visible, which refers to an AI generation software by Google. This year, the tech giant announced it would be adding this watermark to videos generated by the software. The presence of this watermark clearly indicates that the clip in the claim is not an authentic depiction of a cloudburst since Veo was likely used to create it.
Fake videos carrying the Veo watermark have been debunked by Soch Fact Check in the past.
The video carries the Veo watermark.
Taking cues from this, we analysed the video using various AI video detection tools. One such tool is Hive Moderation, which determines “whether content is authentic or AI-created.” This returned a probability of 99.4%, which means that “overall, the video is likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content”.
Results from Hive Moderation.
Another tool, Zhuque AI Detection Assistant, rated the video as “likely AI-generated” with a total probability of 61.71%.
Results from Zhuque AI Detection Assistant.
Therefore, Soch Fact Check concludes that the video claiming to show a cloudburst in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is AI-generated.
Virality
The Facebook post garnered 530,000 views and was liked 6,600 times.
The AI-generated video appeared on Instagram here (archive).
Conclusion: The video purportedly showing a cloudburst in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is AI-generated.
Background image in cover photo: Dawn
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com