Unusually intense snowfall in Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula paralysed the region and buried cars and buildings, but clips circulating online purportedly showing huge snowdrifts are in fact AI-generated. The clips, which contain visual errors often found in synthetically created content, were traced to images shared on Threads that the poster said were made using AI chatbot Grok.<\/p>\n
“Snow apocalypse in Kamchatka,” reads part of the lengthy Malay-language caption of a Facebook video<\/a> shared on January 20, 2026.<\/p>\n The video shows a montage of clips of snowdrifts several storeys high, some appearing to completely engulf blocks of flats.<\/p>\n Screenshot of the false post captured on January 27, 2026, with a red X added by AFP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Similar Facebook<\/a> and TikTok<\/a> posts also shared purported footage of the snowfall. It also spread in other language including\u00a0English<\/a>, French<\/a>, Greek<\/a>, Dutch<\/a> and Romanian<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n It circulated as\u00a0Kamchatka recorded its heaviest snowfall<\/a> since the 1970s in the first weeks of January 2026, prompting authorities to declare<\/a> an emergency situation with schools closed and businesses forced to switch to remote work<\/span><\/span>\u00a0(archived here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Snow falling from roofs killed two people. I<\/span><\/span>mages shared by the Russian authorities showed huge snow piles reaching up to the second storey of buildings and people digging their way through roads as snow blanketed cars on either side.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n