A video showing pilgrims enjoying heavy snowfall at Makkah’s Grand Mosque is doing the rounds on social media. The post claims that people are enjoying the first ever snowfall in Masjid al-Haram.

People shared the video with a caption: First time it was snowing ❄️ in Mekkah 1/1/2023

Here’s the link to the above post.

FACT CHECK 

NewsMobile fact-checked the post, and found it to be false.

We came across multiple reports stating that the video is fake. A report by Dunia News, dated January 2, 2023, mentions that Saudi Meteorological Department has called out the fake video and said it was edited.

Also, a tweet by the Saudi media outlet Haramain Sharifain states that the viral video is fake. “A video clip recently circulated on the social media purportedly showing snowfall in Masjid Al Haram, #Makkah is fake, the National Meteorological Center said in a statement on Sunday,” the tweet dated January 1, 2023, reads. 

A similar tweet on the Twitter handle of the official spokesperson for the National Center of Meteorology in Saudi Arabia, Hussain Al-Qahtani, dated January 1, 2023, states that the viral video is fake.

A video by YouTuber Abdul Malik Fareed, who went to Masjid Al Haram to check if there was any snow, live-streamed the entire journey on January 2, 2023. In the video, we can see that the floor is wet due to rain, but there was no sign of snow.

Hence, from the above fact check, it is clear that the viral claim is false.

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