Hurricane Milton article came from fictional wiki page; it’s not evidence of storm planning

Social media users are citing an April 2024 article from a fictional website as evidence that Hurricane Milton, which as of Oct. 8 was headed for landfall in southwest Florida, was planned.

An Oct. 7 Instagram post shows a screenshot of an article describing the storm in past tense, saying it had caused "catastrophic damage in Mexico and then Florida." The post’s caption said, "Tell me they control and plan these storms without telling me!"

We found other social media posts citing the article and making similar claims about Milton, including an X post with nearly 3 million views showing that Alexa, Amazon’s personal assistant tool, cited the article.

This Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.  (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

The article in the social media posts is not evidence that an unknown power is somehow planning and controlling Hurricane Milton or any other storm. It originated on Hypothetical Hurricanes, a wiki page the gaming and pop culture site Fandom hosts. It lets site visitors collaborate, create and contribute content such as "hypothetical hurricane seasons" and provides templates for articles, info boxes and graphics.

(Instagram screenshot)

PolitiFact found False another claim that Hurricane Helene, which hit northwest Florida Sept. 26, was artificially created; for that fact-check, Monica Allen, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Research division spokesperson, told PolitiFact Oct. 8 that the "NOAA confirms that there are no weather modification activities that could have resulted in Hurricane Helene or Hurricane Milton. Hurricanes form on their own given the right conditions and that was the case with Helene and Milton."  

The Hypothetical Hurricanes homepage has several disclaimers. One says, "Important note: with the exception of a few pages from Wikipedia and other administrative pages, all of the pages on this website are hypothetical, i.e. not real or fictional."

A pop-up box on the homepage says, "Disclaimer: The content on this wiki is fictional and NOT a resource for real tropical cyclones. NONE of this wiki's content should be taken as a real indication of inclement weather."

The site’s "About" page says the "wiki's goal was to be a place where ‘hurricane enthusiasts could make articles for hurricanes that have come to their imagination.’" It added, "No articles in this wiki are real and are merely fictional." The site also says: "Any coincidence or similarity to any real-life event is simply a coincidence, as articles here are made weeks, months, and years before such events occur."

The article in the Instagram post originated on this site. It’s unclear when, although an April story on the website for a faith-based humanitarian organization linked to it. The fictional Hypothetical Hurricanes article describes a powerful Category 5 storm that formed Oct. 15 as a tropical depression near Barbados and headed west, eventually redirecting at Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and heading toward Florida. The fake story said 31 people died.

The real Hurricane Milton formed Oct. 5 as a tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico before transforming into a dangerous storm that’s now headed straight for Florida’s Gulf Coast.

A screenshot in another Instagram post is from an April 25, 2024, article on Convoy of Hope, the faith-based organization’s website. The article, titled "All About Hurricane Milton," discussed why the name Milton was chosen in 2019 to replace Michael — a hurricane that hit Florida in 2018 — on the list of names for 2024 storms.

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stated on September 27, 2024 in a video

Shows video of damage from Hurricane Helene.

The article, which has since been updated and partly replaced with new content, originally had said that "you won’t find any data for a previous Hurricane Milton. At least, not a real hurricane. The Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki will tell you all about a Category 5 Hurricane Milton ‘that caused widespread damage across its path in October 2024.’ Let’s hope that scenario remains in the realm of fiction."

The Hypothetical Hurricanes article about Milton now says the original article was deleted Oct. 7 to prevent misinformation.

The Convoy of Hope article also was updated Oct. 7 to note that the hypothetical article had been taken down now that a real storm named Hurricane Milton was expected to hit Florida. As of Oct. 8, the Convoy of Hope article was updated again to remove all references to the hypothetical article.

The World Meteorological Organization chooses hurricane names well ahead of hurricane seasons. An article on that group’s website listing storm names for 2022 and beyond had Milton as one of the planned storm names in 2024.

An Instagram post claimed that an article about the effects of Hurricane Milton published before the storm hit the U.S. is evidence that storms are controlled and planned.

But the article cited is from "Hypothetical Hurricanes,"a wiki page on which storm enthusiasts create fictional articles for a hurricane season based on their own imaginations. The storm name Milton was already planned by the World Meteorological Organization for 2024, and the wiki user created a fictional path for the storm.

The website said it removed the page because of misinformation concerns. We rate the claim False.