Striking Video Gold: Florida Fireball
Storyful specializes in discovering videos poised to go viral. We contact the uploader, verify the content and clear the rights for our clients to broadcast or publish. The Storyful video team finds video gold, a segment any local news network would love to broadcast. A woman is filming a thunderstorm when lightning strikes a tree meters from the camera. A fireball explodes, the woman jumps back, shouting “Oh shit!”
Step 1
At time of discovery the video had just over 30k views.
Initially, we had suspicions. Is this video a set-up, or an old clip copied from elsewhere and reposted as new? Because if not, we knew this was something news organizations would be interested in. So we set about sleuthing.
The first stop, the video itself, revealed very little: No specific location was attached, no date specified, and this was the sole video uploaded to the YouTube account on which it appeared. The woman in the video had no discernible accent, despite our best efforts to make one out. All we had to go on was the YouTube account name, Rita Krill.
Step 2
The next step was to look for Rita on the people search engine, Spokeo. Several possibilities were returned, including Arizona, Pennsylvania, five people in New York and one person in Naples, Florida.
Step 3
Back to the video for more clues. As the camera panned across the garden, we saw palm trees come into view – not so common in New York, perhaps, but pretty ubiquitous in Florida. We honed in on Naples, Florida.
The knowledge database Wolfram Alpha returned the weather report below for Naples, Florida on the date the video was uploaded (October 5), and the word thunderstorm leaped out. The average temperature of 79 degrees Fahrenheit in the report below also mirrored the estimate of 77 degrees to 80 degrees Fahrenheit from the woman narrating the video.
Step 4
This was supported by a tweet sent by Florida weatherman, John Patrick, suggesting stormy weather in South West Florida on October 5
Tweet your weather pics #SWFL! Storm clouds, rainbows, downpours, etc. let’s see what’s happening near you! #FortMyers #CapeCoral #Naples
— John Patrick (@jpweather) October 5, 2012
Step 5
So back to Rita Krill, listed in Spokeo as living in Naples, FL. A simple Facebook search came up with a public profile for a Rita Krill in Naples, Florida. The street address in Naples was confirmed by Whitepages.com. On to Google Maps, to zoom in on the address in question, and straight away we could see the curved masonry of the swimming pool, the same white airbed floating on the pool, palm trees out back and a lagoon at the end of the garden – all filmed in the video above.
Step 6
Spokeo and WhitePages.com also listed the same telephone number for Rita. So we kicked it old skool, and gave her a call. Rita gave us a riveting first-hand account of the lightning strike, and told us how it scarred several feet of the tree bark and blew a light at the base of the tree, which explains the second flash in the video above. She even emailed photos of the damage (below).
Step 7
Our clients ABC and the Weather Channel broadcast the video and ran an interview with Rita, testament to the compelling nature of her story and the dramatic video she shot. At time of writing, the fireball video clocks in at just under 3 million hits on YouTube. And no more thunderstorms are forecast for Rita’s back garden.