Claim: A video shows a cloud burst amid the ongoing monsoon season and dangerous floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Fact: The video is likely AI-generated and appeared online as early as December 2024 in an entirely different context.
Amid the recent deadly floods and heavy rainfall in Pakistan’s northern areas, a video was shared online containing the text: بادل پھٹنے کا منظر
[Translation: The sight of clouds bursting]
Fact or Fiction?
The video has already circulated multiple times in connection with different claims. In January 2025, it was shared with a false claim about the LA wildfires, which was debunked by Soch Fact Check. A reverse-image search traced the video to an Instagram post from 9 December 2024, which was captioned: “Helicopter pilot accidentally filmed a strange phenomenon of lightning.”
The clip also appeared on X on 10 December 2024 and on Threads the following day, where it was described as footage from Colorado showing an unprecedented electrical storm. A community note on the X post further indicated that the video was likely AI-generated.
Closer examination of the footage revealed several signs of AI. The cockpit gauges feature gibberish numbers and words that are barely legible, which is a well-documented limitation of AI models attempting to replicate text. In addition, the monitor inside the helicopter displays scenes that do not align with the exterior view, reinforcing the suggestion that the video is generated using AI tools.
Floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
The death toll from flash floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has risen to over 320, according to a situation report dated 18 August 2025 available with Soch Fact Check, as well as the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and provincial government officials quoted in media reports. Buner saw the highest number of people killed at 227.
Over 150 people were injured and 336 houses were destroyed, as of 17 August 2025. “The affected districts include Swat, Buner, Bajaur, Torghar, Mansehra, Shangla, and Battagram,” the KP government said in a post on X.
89 trucks worth of aid was delivered to affected districts on the orders of KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, the X post added, while stating that the PDMA has released PKR 800 million to the affected districts and PKR 500 million to Buner. PKR 1 billion was also provided to the Rescue and Relief Department to support flood affectees.
A meeting about the flood situation, held on 17 August 2025 at the Malakand Commissioner’s office and chaired by Gandapur, was briefed that the city of Mingora was most severely affected.
Rescue officials and district administration have appealed to people to relocate to safer locations as Swat became victim to flooding yet again on 18 August, Express News’ Urdu website reported.
In an update on 15 August, the KP government said, “On the directives of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health advisor, a health emergency has been imposed in the flood- and rain-affected districts (Buner, Swat, Mansehra, Bajaur, Mohmand, Abbottabad), flood control rooms established, all medical staff put on high alert, leaves cancelled, and treatment [of patients] in hospitals continues uninterrupted.”
“Rescue officials evacuated 2,071 individuals to safe locations,” it added.
“The provincial rescue agency told AFP that about 2,000 rescue workers were engaged in recovering bodies from the debris and carrying out relief operations in nine affected districts,” The Guardian reported.
Many of the residents were caught off guard, with one telling Al Jazeera that the floodwater “came so fast that many could not leave their homes”. The publication quoted the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) as saying over 500 people have died since 2 June in floods and mudslides triggered by higher-than-average rainfall.
“Climate change has directly amplified the triggers of cloudbursts in Pakistan, especially. Every 1°C rise allows the air to hold about 7% more moisture, increasing the potential for heavy rainfall in short bursts,” ABC News said, quoting experts.
The situation is made worse because of the unexpectedness of this phenomenon, with Pakistani officials saying “a warning to allow evacuations was not possible, as the cloudburst struck before residents could be alerted”, ITV reported.
In a 16 August weather alert, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) warned of torrential rains that “may generate flash floods in local nullahs/streams of Chitral, Dir, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra, Kohistan, Abbottabad, Buner, Charsadda, Nowshera, Swabi, Mardan, Murree, Galliyat, Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Northeast Punjab, and Kashmir from 17 th to 19st (sic) August”.
The weather alert added that there were chances of landslides and mudslides, which could impact commuting, and heavy rainfalls, windstorms, and lightning “may damage weak structures like roof, wall of Kacha houses, electric poles, bill boards, vehicles and solar panels etc during the forecast period”.
In flood-hit Swabi district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, locals questioned the government’s failure to warn residents earlier and voiced frustration over what they perceived as a lack of support from local officials, according to the BBC. Although emergency teams and the military were deployed to assist, the equipment that Arif Khan, a local resident, had desperately requested remained just a few hundred metres away, stuck behind a flooded road. “The ambulances, medicines and excavators are on the way,” Nisar Ahmad, commissioner for the Mardan District, told the BBC. However, they were still unable to reach the village due to the severity of the flooding.
Dr Syed Faisal Saeed, chief meteorologist at the Pakistan Meteorological Department, explained that while such weather conditions are difficult to predict in advance, the general conditions leading to a cloudburst can be identified. S. D. Sanap, a scientist at the India Meteorological Department’s Pune office, told Reuters that cloudburst events are becoming increasingly frequent in the western Himalayas, spanning India and parts of Pakistan. However, he noted that attributing this rise to a single cause is challenging. Sanap added that predicting such events days in advance is nearly impossible, though radars can monitor dense cloud formation and provide short-term warnings of heavy rainfall.
Virality
The claim garnered significant traction on Facebook receiving over 200,000 likes and over 17,000 shares. It was shared here, here, here, here, here, and here. Archived here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Instagram, it was shared here (archive) here (archive) and here (archive).
Conclusion: A video claiming to show a cloud burst is unrelated to the recent floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Moreover, it is likely AI-generated.
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Background image in cover photo: Dunya News
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