An article headlined "Large snowstorm could slam N.J. next week" recently went viral on Facebook, gaining thousands of shares and causing many people to express concern. The post linked to an
article on the site of the New Jersey Star-Ledger, which was a legitimate article. But it had been written 18 months ago in March 2013.
When the Star Ledger realized that people were mistaking the article for a current weather forecast, they posted an editor's note at the top of it, pointing out that it was an old article. But this made no difference, because people on Facebook were generally only looking at the headline and sharing that.
The Star Ledger notes that there's
definitely no snow forecast for October in New Jersey. In fact, "a broad swath of New Jersey has not seen measurable snow before October 10 in more than two centuries."
It's not clear how or why the snowfall forecast began its recent circulation.
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