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| - Fact Check: Netizens mistake artwork for cloud pattern over Mumbai
A stunning image, apparently of mammatus clouds, is circulating on social media with the claim that the sight was photographed over Mumbai skies. India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be untrue.
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India Today Fact Check
This is an artwork by US-based digital artist Brent Shavnore and not an actual photograph. Mumbai has not seen mammatus clouds for several years.
A stunning image, apparently of mammatus clouds, is circulating on social media with the claim that the sight was photographed over Mumbai skies. Mammatus are pouch-like cellular patterns hanging from the undersides of clouds, often rain-bearing ones.
The caption, along with one such picture, says, "Incredible mammatus cloud formation as seen in Mumbai, India." The picture credit has been given to one Brent Shavnore.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be untrue. The image in question is an artwork by United States-based digital artist Brent Shavnore and not a real photograph.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here and here.
AFWA probe
We did a reverse search of the viral image with the keyword "Brent Shavnore" and found the same picture uploaded on August 29, 2020, on Facebook and Instagram pages of a user called Brent Shavnore.
The image caption reads, "The finest souls are those who gulped pain and avoided making others taste it." Shavnore marked his location as Mumbai.
The finest souls are those who gulped pain and avoided making others taste it. Posted by Brent Shavnore on Saturday, 29 August 2020
When AFWA reached out to Shavnore through Instagram, he confirmed to us that the image in question is an artwork done by him and not a real photograph.
"It's artwork that I created and not a real photograph. Soon I'm launching a course called Digital Storm Art Workshop where I'll teach the process of creating such images," Shavnore said.
A similar work with mammatus clouds by Shavnore on an image of the Manhattan skyline can be seen here.
Also, when we reverse-searched the viral image, we found the original picture without the mammatus clouds on stock photography website "iStock". The image description says, "Panoramic view of south central Mumbai at golden hour"
Can Mumbai witness mammatus clouds now?
Mammatus clouds are the rarest form of clouds primarily composed of ice. Often considered as indicators of a coming storm, they can remain static in the sky for around 10-15 minutes.
When we reached out to GP Sharma, president of Skymet Weather Services, a private Indian company that provides weather forecast and solutions, he confirmed to us that there is no possibility of Mumbai witnessing mammatus clouds at this time of the year.
"Though we can make out from the viral image that it is an artificial work, mammatus clouds actually look like this if they appear. But the time of their appearance depends upon the season and the region," Sharma said.
"For the last several years, we have not seen mammatus clouds over the Mumbai region because of climate change. Also, this is clearly an off-season for Mumbai for any sort of weather activity apart from light thunderstorms. Hence, mammatus clouds cannot appear over Mumbai at this point," Sharma clarified.
Hence, it is clear that the viral image is not a real photograph, but an artwork. According to experts, it has been years since mammatus clouds appeared over the Mumbai skyline and they are not expected at this time of the year.
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