Did Trump Display an Altered Hurricane Dorian Map Showing Alabama in Its Path? – Snopes.com

U.S. President Donald Trump gave a news briefing at the White House about Hurricane Dorian on Sept. 4, 2019. Some people, including atmospheric scientist Kait Parker, noticed that a graphic he used looked a little odd.

The black outlined area on this very outdated @NHC_Atlantic #Dorian graphic that Trump just used in his update was added and not a part of the official forecast. @WhiteHouse pic.twitter.com/XMQmepPyj6

— Kait Parker (@WeatherKait) September 4, 2019

The graphic displayed by Trump appears to be a dated screen capture from a time-lapsed National Hurricane Center graphic that shows Dorian’s probable path. It also contains a black mark that misleadingly shows the storm’s projected path heading deep into Alabama.

President @realDonaldTrump gives an update on Hurricane #Dorian: pic.twitter.com/CmxAXHY5AO

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 4, 2019

During the briefing, Trump asked an aide to prop up the map, then stated, “Our original chart was that it was going to be hitting Florida directly … It was going to be hitting directly and that would have affected a lot of other states. But that was the original chart. And as you see it was going to hit not only Florida but Georgia and sort of was going toward the Gulf, that was what we — what was originally projected, and it took a right turn.”

We sent questions to the White House asking why the black mark was drawn onto the map that was displayed during the briefing and why Trump displayed that particular map, which was outdated by almost a week, instead of a current one. We have not yet received answers to our questions.

Some accused the White House of altering an official hurricane graphic to retroactively justify an earlier tweet by Trump that falsely stated Alabama would be among the states “hit (much) harder than anticipated” by Dorian. Trump’s Sept. 1 tweet forced the National Weather Service to correct the record and clarify that Alabama would not be affected by the powerful hurricane.

Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east. #alwx

— NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) September 1, 2019

When asked by a reporter about the map, which looked like “someone took a Sharpie” marker and drew on it, Trump, who frequently accuses the news media of proffering “fake news,” responded, “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.”

Although we do not yet know who altered the map displayed during Trump’s Sept. 4 hurricane briefing, we know the image and the purported hurricane path it represents are not found in a publicly available, time-lapsed graphic from the National Hurricane Center, which shows official projections of the storm’s path. It appears to have been drawn on with a back marker. Thus we rate this claim “True.”

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