“All of the satellite weather data for the day of the Iranian president’s crash has been removed.”
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An Iranian woman holds a poster of President Ebrahim Raisi during a mourning ceremony for him at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran on May 20, 2024. (AP)
No, weather data did not vanish on the day of Iran helicopter crash. That claim is False.
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Iran weather data from an online tool operated out of Colorado State University did not update on May 19, the day that Iranian President Ebraham Raisi died from a helicopter crash because of a hard disk drive error, a spokesperson from the organization said.
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The weather data application is experimental and doesn’t run around the clock.
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The tool receives its Iran weather data from the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, where online weather data was available without interruption May 19.
Iran’s president, Ebraham Raisi, was killed in a helicopter crash May 19 during foggy weather. His unexpected death sparked a wave of misinformation online.
Alex Jones, conspiracy theorist and founder of InfoWars, wrote May 20 on X, "I have confirmed that all of the satellite weather data for the day of the Iranian president’s crash has been removed.
Minutes earlier, Jones had reshared a post from another X user showing that data from the Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch slider, an online weather tool, was unavailable for May 19, the day Raisi died.
The application, created by Colorado State University’s Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, shows users global weather data.
Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere spokesperson Matt Rogers told PolitiFact that data went offline May 19 while staff were out of the office because of a technical issue related to computer hard drive capacity.
"We had a disk issue where the disk filled up and new data was not posted," Rogers said in a May 20 email. "All of the imagery we have is now back online, and no data has been removed or deleted."
Rogers said the tool receives its Iran weather data from the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, which wasn’t interrupted May 19. "That data has always been available online, even if it was off our site because of our disk issue," he said.
PolitiFact used the Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch tool May 21 to access the crash site-area May 19 weather data that had not been initially posted.
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Screenshot of Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch weather data from May 19 in Iran.
Jones did not answer a request for comment from PolitiFact.
The tool slider contains a disclaimer saying the product is experimental. "All our products are experimental and aren’t guaranteed to be online in an operational-always-on manner," Rogers said. "The site is not monitored 24/7 and does suffer from occasional data outages."
Social media users have previously complained on X and Reddit that the website is slow to update and has data outages.
Jones’s X post received a community note in which users shared a link to Zoom Earth, which also showed weather data from May 19 in Iran.
Media outlets reported that the foggy weather during Raisi’s flight could have contributed to the crash.
We rate the claim that all of the satellite weather data for the day of the Iranian president’s crash has been removed False.
Our Sources
X post (archived), May 20, 2024
X post, May 20, 2024
Colorado State University, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, accessed May 21, 2024
Email interview, Matt Rogers, spokesperson, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, May 20, 2024
RAMMB Slider, May 19, 2024
EUMETSAT, Who we are, accessed May 21, 2024
Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch, Experimental Products Disclaimer, accessed May 20, 2024
X post, July 5, 2020
Reddit post, May 17, 2023
Zoom Earth, May 19, 2024
CNN, Some in Iran claim US sanctions caused the Raisi helicopter crash. The truth may be more complicated, May 21, 2024
The Associated Press, What we know so far about the helicopter crash that killed Iran’s president and others, May 20, 2024
BBC, Ebrahim Raisi: What we know about deadly Iran helicopter crash, May 20, 2024
The New York Times, ‘Technical Failure’ Caused Helicopter Crash That Killed Iran’s President, State News Agency Reports, May 19, 2024
ABC News, Expert provides insight into suspected cause of helicopter crash that killed Iran’s president, May 20, 2024
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No, weather data did not vanish on the day of Iran helicopter crash. That claim is False.
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