Collection of Foreign Images Misleadingly Shared As Snowfall in Hatton!

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Ground frost occurs periodically in the Nuwara Eliya region, especially during January - February. Recently, a series of photos went viral in Sri Lanka, claiming to be snowfall in the Hatton area. We conducted a fact-check to verify its accuracy.

Social Media Posts :

A Facebook post comprising multiple photos was widely circulated, claiming to be snowfall scenes in the Hatton area of Sri Lanka.

Facebook | Archived Link

This photo collection was widely shared in the Sinhala language especially.

Some individuals pointed out that the frost appears absent on the tall trees in one of the pictures, hence suggesting possible manipulation or editing.

We took steps to check the veracity of these claims.

Fact-Check:

Initially, we investigated whether mainstream media had reported any incidents of snowfall in the Hatton area of the Nuwara Eliya district. However, we couldn't find any such news.

We contacted local correspondents in the Hatton area, who confirmed that recent instances of frost in the region had not been reported yet. They explicitly stated that the photos in question do not depict the current conditions of that area. Additionally, residents from the Hatton-Nuwara Eliya area corroborated that no such incident had occurred.

Furthermore, the Department of Meteorology verified that the Nuwara Eliya area typically experiences frost during January and February. However, they reported no frost occurrences in the region during the present period.

Additionally, we searched the viral photos using a reverse image feature to find past occurrences of the images. We discovered a Chinese post from February 2022 that used the same photo series. The post discussed a snowfall that occurred after several years on a tea plantation area in the village of Fuding in eastern China.

Also read: There was NO snowfall in Kandy, as the viral image suggested!

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Conclusion :

Our investigation shows that the photos published on social media claiming to be scenes of snowfalls in the Hatton area of Sri Lanka are misleading. The Department of Meteorology, the local reporters, and the residents have confirmed that there has been no frost in the Hatton area yet. Furthermore, the viral posts show a series of photographs taken from a foreign country and not in Sri Lanka.