Dodger Stadium Underwater: Debunking the Viral Illusion That Fooled Us All

Many social media users agreed in a popular overhead video of Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium that Over the weekend, Tropical Storm Hillary caused floodwaters to overflow into the ballpark.

“Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles flooded after Tropical Storm Hillary hits California,” read a well-liked post on X, formerly known as Twitter, alongside a still from the video showing the stadium submerged in water. Another person said, “Dodger Stadium is an island. The club claimed that the flooding demonstrated in the video was only an optical illusion and that the stadium, which is built into a hill, had never been submerged. Here is a glimpse of the occasion up close.

Dodger Stadium reportedly flooded during Tropical Storm Hillary, according to an overhead video. The stadium was not flooded, according to a Dodgers spokeswoman, according to Steve Brenner, The Associated Press. On Monday, the team shared an image online showing how dry the parking lot appeared. Although the video from Sunday first gives the impression that there is a moat around the perimeter of the structure, the stadium is surrounded by rainwater from the parking lot.

Los Angeles Dodgers Aerial Photography, an account, first shared the footage on X and Instagram. “Dodger Stadium this morning,” the caption on the picture stated. Then, others circulated the video and screenshots of the movie, saying they showed the submerged region.

Requests for responses from the Los Angeles Dodgers aerial photography account still need to benswered. However, the image is most certainly an aerial photograph, according to Mark Holtzman, president of Los Angeles-based West Coast Aerial Photography, who told the AP about The visual effect of wet concrete.

According to him, the reflection in the water gives it an “opaque appearance” that gives the impression of standing water. “It’s just how you affect the rain; you’re getting light coming in grey,” Holtzman explained.

Hany Farid, a digital forensics specialist at the University of California, Berkeley, added that it can be difficult to distinguish between a damp surface and a few inches submerged from a distance aerial perspective. “I don’t think the video is fake or manipulated; I just think it doesn’t show the flood around the stadium,” Farid said in an email.

The parking lot is narrow, according to Holtzman, who has frequently flown above the stadium and has never witnessed or heard of flooding. It is not level, preventing the water from building up.

“I’ve flown in it, you know, various times and all different, dry and wet,” he remarked. “It appears to be a drizzly stadium.”

The video also shows details of the parking lot that would not be seen if submerged.

For instance, the painted marks for parking spots in lots 3, 4, 5, and 15 closest to the camera are discernible and match up with markings on Google Maps satellite photographs of the region.

The video clearly shows a triangle median at the intersection of Lots I, K, and 7, albeit it is primarily manicured with tiny plants that may be flooded. Three MLB games were postponed. Due to Hillary’s forecast, there will be Sunday games all around Southern California. Due to a doubleheader on Saturday, the Dodgers did not play on Sunday.

The pitch would have been suitable for a Monday night game, according to Brenner, the team spokesman, had they not been traveling. He claimed that vehicles from the K-pop group Blackpink were in the parking lot for the event on Saturday. Hillary was the first tropical storm to land in Southern California in 84 years; on Sunday, the region was beset by earthquakes and wildfires.