The photo is neither related to Australia nor any wildfire - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 8, 2020
A photo is being shared on social media with a claim that it is related to Australian bushfires. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
Helicopter view of Australian bushfires.
Fact: The photo was taken over Hawaiian ocean waters, not in Australia. Also, the photo is not related to any wildfire. It is a visual where the ‘light of the sunset was visible through a deck of altocumulus clouds’. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the photo was run through the Yandex Reverse Image Search, the same photo was found to be uploaded by many users as related to ‘California wildfires’. But, Marshall Shepard (an Atmospheric Sciences Professor) tweeted the same photo along with the link of his article in the ‘Forbes’ regarding the photo. In the article, it can be read that the photo was taken by Nathan Province. Other photos and a related video  can be seen on her Instagram profile. Regarding the viral photo, the following lines can be read in the article – “the picture was simply of a sunset over Hawaiian ocean waters. It is not even volcanic activity as some have also reported. It is an interesting optical spectacle as the light of the sunset was visible through a deck of altocumulus clouds.”
To sum it up, the photo is neither related to Australia nor any wildfire.
Did you watch our video on the 10 Most Ridiculous Fake News of the Year 2019?