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    The movie Twister is about a team of tornado chasers led by Dr. Jo Harding who is motivated to understand tornado formation after her father's death. They create a device called "Dorothy" to collect data inside a tornado. While the movie depicts intense tornado scenes, scientists note many inaccuracies. Tornadoes do not sound like roaring lions and their intensity cannot be determined by sight alone. Additionally, trying to outrun an F5 tornado like Jo and Bill do would likely result in serious injury or death. While entertaining, Twister does not accurately portray how tornadoes form or behave in real life.

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    The movie Twister is about a team of tornado chasers led by Dr. Jo Harding who is motivated to understand tornado formation after her father's death. They create a device called "Dorothy" to collect data inside a tornado. While the movie depicts intense tornado scenes, scientists note many inaccuracies. Tornadoes do not sound like roaring lions and their intensity cannot be determined by sight alone. Additionally, trying to outrun an F5 tornado like Jo and Bill do would likely result in serious injury or death. While entertaining, Twister does not accurately portray how tornadoes form or behave in real life.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    77 views3 pages

    Twister

    Uploaded by

    api-665856691
    The movie Twister is about a team of tornado chasers led by Dr. Jo Harding who is motivated to understand tornado formation after her father's death. They create a device called "Dorothy" to collect data inside a tornado. While the movie depicts intense tornado scenes, scientists note many inaccuracies. Tornadoes do not sound like roaring lions and their intensity cannot be determined by sight alone. Additionally, trying to outrun an F5 tornado like Jo and Bill do would likely result in serious injury or death. While entertaining, Twister does not accurately portray how tornadoes form or behave in real life.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 3

    Rachel Thacker

    Professor Mascio

    Atmosphere 1010

    April 27, 2023

    Twister

    Twister is a 1996 movie about a team of meteorologists who are tornado chasers. They

    have created a machine named “Dorothy" which they want to put inside a tornado. The point of

    Dorothy is so that they can finally understand what happens inside of a tornado and give people

    12 more minutes of time to get to safety before a tornado hits. Dr. Jo Harding (Helen Hunt) is

    extremely motivated to find out how these twisters are formed because her father was killed by

    one when she was young. Jo believes that if she can find out how they work on the inside then

    she can save at least one person the heartache she has had to endure. The credibility of the storms

    portrayed in this movie have been questioned by many scientists and meteorologists.

    The movies main weather phenomena are tornados hence the title “Twister”, while a

    focal point of the movie is the relationship between Dr Jo Harding and her soon to be ex husband

    (Bill Paxton) the main focus are the tornados. With a budget of just under 100 million the screen

    is filled with dark clouds and strong winds. Cows, houses, people, cars, and many other

    inanimate objects get swept away by these tornadoes. Each scene progresses with one of the

    other meteorologists in the crew yelling about a new tornado that is forming nearby. There is

    even a scene where Bill and Jo drive through a house that the twister just so happened to drop

    right in front of them. With the climax of the movie being a F5 tornado the same level that killed

    Jo’s father.
    Let's talk about the science behind the weather phenomenon that was named in this

    movie. An acronym to remember when it comes to supercell tornados and intense thunderstorms

    that were featured in the movie is L.I.M.B.S. The L stands for lift when the air pressure starts to

    change in the atmosphere. Next is I which stands for instability the air in the atmosphere begins

    to become unstable. M stands for moisture you cannot have a thunderstorm or a tornado without

    moisture it is one of the key ingredients. B is for boundaries this is when cold and warm fronts

    start combining. Finally shear it is impossible to have a tornado without wind. Now even with all

    of these things a tornado is not guaranteed you need to also have different kinds of air and wind

    patterns happening at the same time. The wind has to create a funnel and have that funnel touch

    the ground if any kind of tornado will form.

    Now what does the movie get right and wrong about tornadoes? First of all, tornados

    don’t sound like a “roaring lion” when in reality they sound more like a constant low rumble or a

    rushing train. Dorothy is actually a real instrument meteorologists have tried using however, the

    real-life instrument was called “Toto”. The point was to put the machine in the path of a tornado

    so that they could get real-time measurements but it was considered too dangerous and the

    project failed. During the climax of the film Jo and Bill try to outrun an F5 tornado which would

    be pretty much impossible, during these scenes, Bill and Jo would not have survived or would

    have been seriously injured. Another big problem with the movie is that meteorologists cannot

    tell what level a tornado is from looking at it, you actually have to survey the damage the tornado

    caused afterward. While Twister is a fun movie it however is not at all accurate to how actual

    tornados work. Not to mention the equipment used in the movie has been considered dangerous

    for meteorologists to use.


    Works Cited

    Npr. “Science Movie Club: ‘Twister.’” NPR, 8 Apr. 2020,

    www.npr.org/2019/09/04/757580924/science-movie-club-twister.

    “Penn State Researcher Explains the Physics Behind Deadly Tornadoes.” NASA,

    www.nasa.gov/larc/outwitting-tornadoes-penn-state-researcher-explains-the-physics-behind-

    deadly-storms/#:~:text=In%20more%20precise%20terms%2C%20tornadoes%20emerge

    %20from%20what,different%20directions%2C%20can%20produce%20a%20thunderstorm

    %20that%20rotates.

    Twister; 1996; Directed by Jan de Bront

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