How a Meteorologist Helped Make the Science of Chasing Storms in ‘Twisters’ as Real as Possible

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How a Meteorologist Helped Make the Science of Chasing Storms in ‘Twisters’ as Real as Possible

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Current21:31Why Tornadoes Still Fascinate

Summer hit Whirlwinds took cinemas by storm and fueled the already established interest in storm chasing films.

And while meteorologist and storm chaser Sean Waugh says parts of the film are exaggerated, the science, equipment and jargon accurately reflect what it’s like to investigate and chase a massive storm.

“The most unrealistic part of the movie is when they’re chasing, they’re the only people on the road and it never happens. There are so many other people who are there,” Waugh said.

The film is a sequel to the 1996 film. TornadoSince its premiere on July 19, it has grossed over $220 million in theaters worldwide.

Waugh is a meteorologist at NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, and consulted on the film. He spoke with Current guest host is Juanita Taylor.

What is it about these storms that makes you want to learn more about them and see them in person?

We know a lot about the atmosphere, but we don’t know everything, not even a little bit. There are so many questions that we don’t understand. There are so many things that we don’t really understand, how it works or how they interact to create the phenomenon that we perceive as weather.

A man speaks while holding a microphone on stage.
Sean Waugh served as a consultant on the film and even had a cameo role in it. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

As a consultant, what was your role?

There is probably no part of the film that I haven’t touched. I designed and built a lot of the research equipment that we use in the film, namely the director [Lee Isaac Chung] I wanted it to be as authentic as possible.

So he brought the art department and the set design teams to the National Weather Service. And we spent a lot of time talking, and I showed them the different vehicles that we use and why we do certain things, and they used all of that as inspiration for a lot of the things that you see in the movie.

I built several props for the film. I helped design many aspects of the vehicles. I worked with the Playback group, which designs all the graphics for the film. I hand-picked the radar images that you see, so every time you see a radar display, it’s real radar data that I personally selected for the film.

I talked to Isaac and the cast about things to say, terminology, and where to point when looking at the radar. I talked to almost everyone in the film to try to make it as realistic, authentic, and true to form as possible.

A man and a woman stand on a red carpet in front of a large sign advertising the movie Twisters.
Waugh says he took cast members such as Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell, pictured, on a storm-hunting trip. (John Phillips/Getty Images)

How credible is the science presented in the film?

I think everything you see in the movie is based, at least in theory, on some real equipment, some real work or research that we do, or some theory or concept.

It’s a Hollywood movie. It’s supposed to be dramatic, it’s supposed to be over the top and exaggerated, and it absolutely delivers on that aspect. So there are a lot of things that are probably a little bit over the top from what they normally are. For example, there’s no way we can tame a tornado; there’s no way to kill a tornado.

It’s a little over [exaggerated] in terms of scale, but everything is very realistic and plausible.

Tornado funnel landing in field.
A tornado funnel nearly touches down near South Haven, Kansas, May 19, 2013. (Gene Blevins/Reuters)

The first film really got the public interested in storm chasing. Now there are entire YouTube channels dedicated to storm chasing. As a scientist, do you differentiate between what they do and what you do as a storm chaser?

As a storm chaser, it’s basically a hobby. People just like to go out and watch the atmosphere, and it’s amazing and beautiful in many ways, to see the atmosphere change from a nice, sunny day to just this violent, powerful storm that produces grapefruit-sized hail. It’s amazing.

Some people make some money selling these images, these recordings… There is even a market offering storm chasing trips.

On the other hand, scientific research asks scientific questions that we try to answer when we try to learn something.

It seems a bit risky. Are you worried about people’s safety?

Yes. Risk is obviously something we think about a lot… It’s become really easy now to… find the nearest tornado warning and go there yourself, and that often puts a lot of people in danger who don’t really know what they’re doing.

The side of a vehicle parked on the side of the road with an approaching storm in the background.
A view from a tornado reconnaissance vehicle window. A supercell thunderstorm develops in Oklahoma on May 10, 2017. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Honestly, the most dangerous part of what we do, both in storm chasing and in research, is driving in severe weather. But also because of the rise in popularity of things like storm chasing… we see a lot of people on these roads, roads that normally only have a dozen or so cars a year, suddenly 1,000 people are on them. And that’s not an exaggeration.

Have you taken any of Whirlwinds Did they include storm chasing in their research?

So I did. So when we were shooting, this time last year, I was talking to the cast, I was even talking to a few crew members. I probably have a list of about 100 people who wanted to chase storms. Obviously, doing that during filming wasn’t an option, right? You can imagine that me trying to convince Universal Studios to let their multimillion-dollar talent go in the middle of filming to chase a tornado probably wasn’t a good liability risk.

But earlier this spring I had an opportunity… I basically just reached out and said, “Hey, I have a day coming up that I think is pretty good. Are you available?” And they were into it and they wanted to go.

The day ended up not being a super great day. It’s one of those days where a few days out look great and then when the day comes everything falls apart, which is great for everyone back home but not for storm chasing.

But we went out and I showed them the process and the forecasting… they had a great time. And I think it really gave them an appreciation of not only the work we do as researchers, but also the environment, storm chasing and what it’s like to be a storm chaser.

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