‘Hard to fathom’: Some recent Ontario tornado photos were AI, researchers say

Researchers examining damage from a storm that hit London, Ont., last week say two photos claiming to depict tornadoes were artificial intelligence-generated fakes.

Staff with the Northern Tornadoes Projects out of Western University said in a Facebook post Saturday that the fakes were “obvious” to spot.

“Folks, AI-generated photos and photos from past storms depicting tornadoes are now often being shared during storm events. Why people do this is hard to fathom. It’s also likely illegal,” the post reads.

“If you are sent a photo of a tornado during or after a storm situation that is not from a trusted source, please think twice before sharing it. Increasingly, that photo will likely have been manipulated.”

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Researchers said one of the photos, taken from a car, depicted a tornado near London International Airport. However, the damage in east London was south of there, they wrote.

“The official weather observers at the airport did not see or report any tornado or funnel cloud (we checked). Also, meteorologically, tornadoes don’t tend to form in the part of the storm depicted,” the post reads.

“We conclude, based on the evidence, that the tornado was added to a real photo.”

Staff said the second photo, taken from a balcony, featured a tornado north of the city towards Arva.

“Again, there was no damage reported or found there, and radar shows no rotation in that area,” they wrote.

“We conclude, based on the evidence, that the tornado was again added to a real photo.”

Researchers concluded that two tornadoes and a downburst hit the London area on May 19. The downburst caused up to EF1 damage from east London to Dorchester, and one tornado caused EF1 damage from Lambeth across south London to the Mossley area.

A second brief tornado caused EF0 damage in the Melbourne area, southwest of London.