White House photo shows Trump being briefed with accurate Hurricane Dorian map before it was altered to include Alabama

Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead

President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence, receives a briefing update on Hurricane Dorian as it approaches the U.S. mainland Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019, in the Oval Office of the White House.

• A picture on the White House's Flickr page shows a President Donald Trump being briefed on the likely path of Hurricane Dorian, showing an early projection of where the storm might go.
• Trump has insisted that early evidence suggested that Alabama could get hit. The map shows that in this briefing, that was not the case. 
• On Wednesday, Trump produced the same map pictured in the briefing, but with the storm's potential path extended via black pen into Alabama.
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An official White House photograph shows that President Donald Trump was briefed on the likely progress of Hurricane Dorian with a map which did not show that it would hit Alabama.

The image - taken during a briefing on Thursday August 29, and posted on the White House Flickr page - shows Trump receiving what was then the most up-to-date information on where Dorian could head.

The same map was later produced in an altered form by Trump to support the false claim that Alabama was once thought to be in the storm's path, as seen here:

Reuters

U.S. President Trump receives a Hurricane Dorian update at the White House in Washington

Several days later, Trump tweeted a message warning that Alabama was among the states "most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated" - despite the forecasts by then having moved even further from Alabama.

Trump's suggestion prompted ridicule, and a swift correction from the National Weather Service. But the president continued to insist that he had been right to make the claim.

On Wednesday, Trump at an Oval Office press conference produced an altered version of the same map - advisory 21, from 11 a.m. Thursday August 29.

On the map, the storm's potential path extended with black pen to include Alabama.

He told reporters: "I know that Alabama was in the original forecast, they thought it would get a piece of it."

"We have a better map ... in all cases Alabama was hit, if not lightly in some cases pretty hard. They gave it a 95 percent chance."

Here is the original map from the NOAA showing Dorian's forecasted trajectory.

NOAA

NOAA map showing the forecasted path of Hurricane Dorian.

The map Trump showed reporters Wednesday - almost a week after it was valid - had an additional section in black extending into Alabama.

When asked later about why the map appeared to have been doctored, Trump replied "I don't know. I don't know." 

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley later confirmed the map had been altered using a Sharpie marker pen. 

The president may have even broken the law if the map was found to have been deliberately altered, with publishing counterfeit weather forecasts a violation of federal law. 

Later, the president tweeted a map from the South Florida Water Management District dated August 28, which appears to show some impact on Alabama from the storm.

In small print, the map states "NHS Advisories and County Emergency Management Statements supersede this project. This graphic should complement, not replace, NHC discussions."

"If anything on this graphic causes confusion, ignore the entire product," reads the note. 

An August 29 NOAA map does show a low probability of Alabama being impacted by tropical storm force winds from Dorian. 

On Monday Trump had attacked a journalist for reporting on his misstatement about the hurricane's s trajectory, claiming that early evidence indicating Alabama would likely be impacted. 

"Under certain original scenarios, it was in fact correct that Alabama could have received some 'hurt,'" he said.