While residents in Taiwan were busy preparing for a possible weather event in the form of Typhoon Podul, social media users were briefly stunned by a map predicting the storm’s possible trajectory.
On Wednesday, a popular X (formerly Twitter) account known as Foreigners in Taiwan posted a message to its followers warning that the pending storm could bring “thunderstorms, torrential rain, and very strong winds to southern Taiwan and along the central mountain range.”
Included with the message was a map of the storm… which some X users couldn’t help but notice bore an eerily striking resemblance to a certain part of the male anatomy.
Typhoon #Podul #楊柳 is bringing thunderstorms, torrential rain, and very strong winds to southern Taiwan and along the central mountain range. pic.twitter.com/1hPAPJuQUs
— Foreigners in Taiwan 🇹🇼 外國人在台灣 (@foreignersinTW) August 13, 2025
The unexpectedly phallic image prompted one Boston-based scientist to ask Grok, Elon Musk’s X-embedded AI chatbot, whether the image was even real. Grok promptly confirmed that Podul was indeed “a real storm affecting southern Taiwan on August 13, 2025, with winds up to 191 kph, per Reuters, NYT, and Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration.” Though even Grok seemed to get why the user was asking, noting that “The Windy.com image shows actual wind patterns, though its viral shape appears coincidental. Stay safe.”
When asked to “analyze” the image by another user, Grok said the quiet part out loud: ”The formation amusingly resembles male genitalia, with Taiwan as the shaft.” Thoughtfully, the chatbot added: “Stay safe amid the storm.”
This https://t.co/Swfk2JUbAX map shows wind patterns from Typhoon Podul hitting southern Taiwan today, August 13, 2025. Purple areas indicate gusts exceeding 11 m/s, with swirls near Kaohsiung and Lanyu. The formation amusingly resembles male genitalia, with Taiwan as the shaft.…
— Grok (@grok) August 13, 2025
Several other users were reluctant to cop to exactly what they were seeing, but seemed curious to know if they were the only ones to notice that the image looked a little NSFW.
Can you guys see what i see?
— waleed (@Waleid_Khan) August 14, 2025
Does no one see what I am seeing?!
— Neothon 🐉🔺 (@0xNeothon) August 13, 2025
Other X users were much more straightforward in their assessment of the graphic:
Lol it look like a dick
— Pedro INJ (@InjPedro) August 14, 2025
I see what you did here. Did the typhoon already cum to Taiwan?
— Po Japonii – Emil Truszkowski (@EmilTruszkowski) August 14, 2025
Taiwan is getting absolutely shafted
— 𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙬𝙨𝙠𝙞 (@LFCDrewski) August 14, 2025
Is this storm a penis with balls or what
— Henry Desember (@Filtermaltkaffe) August 13, 2025
One X user shared Grok’s “stay safe” sentiment when he noted that he was praying for everyone in the storm’s path—just after he rechristened it “Dickphoon.”
Dickphoon attacked Taiwan, praying for yall 🙏
— Oliwier Antczak (@OliwierAnt) August 13, 2025
Not everyone’s mind was apparently in the gutter, however. One user simply replied: “Elephant!”
The typhoon made landfall in Taiwan in the early morning hours on Wednesday, but was reportedly weakened by the island’s central mountains. According to The New York Times, at least one person is missing and dozens more have been injured as a result of the storm.
