Misleading: Viral video compilation largely unrelated to recent extreme weather in Harbin
Strong gusts and a sandstorm hit Harbin (哈尔滨), the capital of China’s Heilongjiang (黑龙江) province, at around 5 p.m. on May 31, causing damage across the city.
Wind speed reached level 13 on the extended Beaufort scale, or roughly 133 to 149 kilometers per hour in some areas, according to China Central Television (CCTV).
A video compilation posted on Threads the following day claimed to show how intense the storm was in Harbin.
The 10 clip montage shows a shed and bicycle being overturned, scaffolding and trees collapsing into roads, and vehicles flipped by powerful winds.
The Chinese-language post has gained about 1,300 likes, 150 comments, 90 reposts, and 1,260 shares. Some of the footage has also surfaced on YouTube, TikTok, and X.
MBN News, a South Korean broadcaster, and British broadcaster ITV, used clips from the compilation in its coverage of the Harbin sandstorm.
However, Annie Lab found that most of the clips were unrelated to the May 31 event. Many show sandstorms in other parts of China or different types of extreme weather, such as typhoons.
Clips of strong winds taken out of context
The first clip (from 0:00 to 0:02) shows a blue parking canopy being blown off by strong winds.
It is a mirrored version of a video (archived here) posted by HNTV City Channel (河南都市频道), an official Henan Television outlet, more than a year ago on May 3, 2025.
On-screen text in that video reads “May 3” and “Henan,” indicating it was filmed in Henan province, not Harbin.
This clip is attributed to an account named “Kong Gu Hui Yin” (空谷回音), but Annie Lab could not locate any related posts from a user with that name on major platforms.
The third clip (from 0:05 to 0:07) shows scaffolding collapsing onto a road while cars, bikes and pedestrians pass by.
Annie Lab could not independently verify the precise location, but this footage appears in earlier reports on strong winds in other parts of China in April 2025, predating the storm in Harbin this year.
For example, the same clip was posted by Sichuan TV’s Douyin account (archived here), Sichuan Observation, indicating it shows Xi’an in Shaanxi (陕西) province on April 30, 2025, while the South China Morning Post (archived here) used the footage to report on the severe weather in Shanxi (山西) province on the same day.
The two are different provinces in northern China, but both were hit by the same late‑April windstorm last year.
The ninth clip (from 0:16 to 0:17) shows a shelter being blown to the ground.
We found that the original video (archived here) was posted on May 31, 2026, at 4:38 p.m. by a Douyin user whose IP location is in Jilin province. The video’s title indicates that the scene was recorded in Songyuan (松原), a city in Jilin (吉林) that borders Heilongjiang province where Harbin is located.
According to CCTV, on the afternoon of May 31 severe convective weather struck several cities in central and western Jilin, including Songyuan, with some areas experiencing short-lived but intense winds, extreme gusts, and tornadoes.
Videos taken during typhoons
Four out of the 10 clips in the compilation depict events during typhoons in other Chinese cities, such as Suzhou (苏州), Shanghai, and Hong Kong. They have no connection to the Harbin sandstorm.
Typhoon Bebinca hitting Suzhou and Shanghai
Clips 5 through 7 appear to show the same typhoon from two years ago.
Clip 5 (0:10 – 0:11) shows an auto rickshaw being overturned by strong wind. It matches a higher-resolution video (archived here) posted on Weibo on Sept. 16, 2024.
In this version, we identified the logo of a local foot massage chain named “Yu Yue Foot Massage” (虞悦足道) in Suzhou. This clip was used in another video (archived here) posted the same day, in the context of a typhoon hitting Suzhou.
The next two clips (0:11 – 0:14) show a person falling from a motorcycle and trees bending violently in the wind on a city street. The earliest versions of both clips were featured in this Douyin video (archived here) posted on Sept. 16, 2024, which describes them as scenes from the same typhoon hitting Shanghai.
Typhoon Wipha hitting Hong Kong
Another clip (from 0:14 to 0:15) showing bamboo scaffolding collapsing is identical to a Facebook video (archived here) uploaded on July 20, 2025, documenting damage from Typhoon Wipha in Hong Kong.
It captures the moment scaffolding falls from a residential compound called Sky Scraper, at 132-142 Tin Hau Temple Road in North Point. Google Maps Street View of this address shows the same cluster of buildings seen in the viral clip, confirming the location.
Local news outlet HK01 and other media reported on multiple scaffolding collapses during Typhoon Wipha including the one shown in the footage.
Authentic scenes in Harbin
The fourth clip (from 0:08 to 0:09) does appear to show storm damage in Harbin, featuring a tree uprooted and lying on a road. The footage is a horizontally flipped version of a Douyin video (archived here) posted on May 31, 2026, at 8:13 p.m. by a user whose IP location is in Heilongjiang province.
Two business signs can be identified in the clip: Hongnan Hotel (宏南宾馆) and Shuangying Fresh food (双盈生鲜). Both operate in the Hongnan residential compound (宏南小区) in Daowai District (道外区), Harbin.
A separate post (archived here) on Xiaohongshu shows similar photos from the same area, including the identical storefront signs, captured at 6:20 p.m. on May 31.
These two storefront signs match those at the intersection of Hongwei Road and Hongnan Street in Harbin, as shown on Baidu Maps below.
The second clip (from 0:03 to 0:05) shows scaffolding falling onto a busy road. Annie Lab found that it first appeared in a Weibo post uploaded about five hours after the sandstorm struck (archived here); the clip was included in Xinhua’s coverage of the extreme weather the next day (0:49 – 0:52).
We noted a brand name on a rooftop billboard that appears to read “小乐创教育” (Xiao Le Chuang Education) but searches for that business name yielded no clear results.
One clip at the end of the viral video (from 0:17 to 0:19) remains unidentified. A motorcycle is seen on fire in the middle of a road.
We found identical footage used in an advertising video posted on Dec. 21, 2025, which predates the Harbin storm, but we could not find further information.
The advertisement is accessible only via WeChat. We obtained and reviewed a screen recording of it for this fact check.
