Put the chainsaws away, folks, no Sharknados — or Sharricanes — are in the forecast.
A doctored image showing a purported news ticker is making its rounds on social media ahead of the incoming Hurricane Florence. The post claims the storm is plucking sharks out of the ocean and into the hurricane.
Yes, like the movie "Sharknado."
If you're unfamiliar with the movie franchise that the hoax is based off of, it's just how it sounds: a tornado filled with sharks. Syfy's franchise — which launched its wildly successful, equally ridiculous social-media phenomenon with the first film in 2013— concluded last month with its fifth film.
Unlike what the image claims, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has not made any reports of seeing sharks flying through the hurricane.
In 2015, NOAA played along with the release of Sharknado 3, tweeting, "The day @NWS starts issuing #Sharknado alerts, you’ll know it's real. #Sharknado3"
No such alert has been made. Snopes, a fact-checking website, also verified its falsehood calling the image "a recycled fake."
This isn't the first time the Sharknado-inspired claim has circulated around social media. The same rumor surfaced ahead of Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
The image was likely created on BreakYourOwnNews.com, a website that allows users to do exactly that, generate their own fake news images.
Sites, however, have circulated the hoax as fact.
On Tuesday, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh backed up the claims, warning residents of North Carolina and South Carolina of the false threat of flying sharks as well as the threat of toxic sludge and pig manure.
Limbaugh brings up Hurricane Florence at the 36:21 mark.
"New reports from NOAA aircraft show sharks have been lifted into the hurricane," Limbaugh says. "So those of you in the target path of North Carolina and South Carolina, in addition, in addition to the floods, in addition to the cars rolling around on the waters of the front of your house, in addition to the mud slides and landslides, now you might end up with a shark in your front yard. You think I'm making this up?"
"The sharks are being lifted out of the Atlantic Ocean and dumped into the storm because it's so strong, it's sucking them in there," he adds. "They're going to be in the waters, of course the only water that might contain sharks would be storm surge — it isn't going to be raining sharks, and that's the predominate water source in a hurricane is rain fall."
Limbaugh goes on to claim there are other threats as well.
"Hurricane risks include toxic sludge and lagoons of pig manure. This is, I'm telling you, they're getting ready to call this Donald Trump's Katrina," he says.
However, a public health crisis from flooded hog manure pits, coal ash dumps and other industrial sites in North Carolina are a real risk, according to the Associated Press.
More shark hoaxes
There's another shark-related hoax sure to make its rounds in the days following Hurricane Florence. Two photos, one that portrays a shark swimming near the railings of a front porch, and another, seemingly of a shark swimming by a car, are both doctored images.
The photos seem to pop up in the wake of nearly every major storm.
Amazingly, the same shark has managed to navigate its way through the highways of Florida and Houston last year, and on the interstates after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and Hurricane Irene in 2011.
Fake shark hoax: That shark photo is fake — and part of a bigger problem
Of course, it's not true.
One image is taken from a 2005 Africa Geographic photograph of a kayaker being followed by a shark off the coast of South Africa.
The other was widely shared after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The original photo, taken in 2006, can be found on Flickr.
While the images are fake, the chances of those on the East Coast catching a glimpse of a shark in the storm surge is highly unlikely. Sharks won't attack you, or even stick around, during a hurricane.
Sharks are sensitive to barometric pressure, which drops when a storm comes in, according to a 2017 article in Time.
There are plenty of threats from Hurricane Florence as it is expected to make landfall Thursday night, but sharks, in the air or in the streets, won't be one of them.
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