The script originally had a tornado lasting for an entire day. The meteorological consultants said that would be impossible, but a tornado outbreak with multiple damaging tornadoes would be.
IIRC Bill paxton wanted to make a sequal based on the tri-state tornado, which i could see would be a very long lasting tornado time wise. although we also had a recent tornado outbreak several years ago with a similar very long track tornado
In short, the outbreak scenario _Twister_ presents is surprisingly plausible, even if the tornadoes themselves behave in Hollywood fashion. Definitely a fun little video, though, and definitely helps to explain the basics of how synoptic patterns work to the less educated.
It may not be the most accurate movie ever made, but I think we should definitely acknowledge the fact that many storm chasers and meteorologists today became interested in that field because of it. I must've watched it dozens of times when I was growing up. I became super interested in tornadoes as a result.
100%...it's been very influential in my life and endeavors into meteorology/storm chasing. Even with its flaws, it's still the best tornado movie ever and it's not close.
One thing that I noticed as a pretty big mistake in the movie was that the F5 tornado was being predicted during the middle of the night when the team was assessing the damage in Wakita. Then when the team gets to the F5 it is the middle of the afternoon which means that the tornado must’ve been on the ground for over 7-8 hours which is unheard of. Also the convective evolution likely would’ve become less favorable for tornadoes as the night progressed, along with the thermodynamic and kinematic environment.
I was watching it last night and was thinking same went from night time and movie was playing so had be around 9 clock than it's bright beautiful day with monster f5 ripping thru. Somaybe I'd say 12 hrs least it had be on ground or maybe it reproduced on same parent cell
Daytime AM hour tornadoes in the plains states are exceptionally rare (although we did have a few this year). In the southeast, they occur more often but rarely get up into the violent range. I just assumed when watching the movie they were chasing a different tornado the next afternoon. But then I remember the radio announcement about the "F5 maxi twister".
I've always laughed at the waterspout scene with the high pitched sound and then the weird blubbery fish noise. Extremely odd sound design choice but I think it was to make the tornadoes out to kind of be "characters" in their own right. Just got out of Twisters. It's overall a very good movie that also does a good job at trying to be scientifically accurate, but did also provide me with some eye-rolls with the way they used some of the terminology. I can't wait to see you break it down and see what your thoughts are.
@@Cheetor89 it was far from crap and cheap. Also you know it's not a documentary also right? Like the original was an ocean of inaccuracies from real world tornadoes too.
In my headcanon, the first tornado they encounter is a landspout that quickly formed under a new developing updraft (uniform round flat cloud base, no RFD cut yet), intensifying as the storm developed a more robust meso, not too dissimilar to the 1997 Jarrell F5 or the 2007 Elie Manitoba F5. The film version appeared more like the latter, including the fact that it developed in a more traditional supercell environment, had a more "loopy" rope-out like appearance before strengthening into a violent drillbit, even so far as shredding a barn and lofting vehicles! The film one might have formed along an outflow boundary of some of the previous storms seen early on in the film when Jo and Bill first meet, which I think may be plausible with the strong low level instability you mentioned in the vid. Anyways, this was a really interesting & well made video, I've always wondered about the setup in this movie, it was great to see an in depth analysis of it! Also, I know its not in the USA, but have you thought of doing an analysis video for the 2007 Elie F5? It was such a bizzare tornado and I think it would enjoy taking a deeper dive into it!
Thank you! I agree with you; Elie is a pretty good analog for that first tornado. And yes, I actually was planning on doing an Elie breakdown before I started my storm chasing tour season this past year, but I ran out of time. So it is #1 on my list once we get through the case studies from this past season!
As a man who lives on Ring of Fire country with 500 volcanoes, I appreciate your video about Twister. Me watch twister since 2000 when my mother buy CD of Twister movie and make me follow any stormchaser like Reed Timmer, Skip Talbot, etc.
I can thank this movie for really getting my interest in severe weather going. I've probabaly watched it close to 1000 times over my life. Still very much my favorite movie, even with it's flaws.
That is true; the roar of a tornado is very distinct, and you just know what's coming when you hear it. It's higher pitched than thunder, much like a freight train, metro rail, or jet engine, and simply becomes louder and louder as it approaches. You can hear the wind howling and growling in some instances, such as in some footage of the May 3rd F5, the audio of the Xenia F5, the Clem Schultz clip, and clips of the Tuscaloosa EF4, to name a few. Some wedge tornadoes in the past have also had a tall base, such as the Jarrell F5 and the Andover F5.
@@jaredpatterson1701 waterfall is another one. Very distinct sound, low rumble that is higher pitched than thunder, but a clear indication of something powerful
@@ConvectiveChronicles from a distance it does sound like a waterfall, especially violent ones. However, the second they are starting to approach you? The best comparison I can make is if you’ve ever ridden a metrorail, whether it be a subway or an above ground metro like in Miami Dade county, it sounds exactly like that. Clem Schultz video and many videos of the Phil Campbell Hackleburg EF5 capture this sound
@@dannyllerenatv8635 I'll be honest, I've never understood the freight train comparison. I've been very close to some strong to violent tornadoes and that waterfall sound is pretty persistent, even at close range.
This is an excellent idea! You should definitely look into more topics that help bridge the gap between us hardcore weather enthusiasts and the general public with content both groups can enjoy.
Always a fun deep dive into this movie. I remember growing up and even in college and high school pointing out all the flaws of the movie but as you said, they did at least try to incorporate some meteorology. I think the most clever idea they did in the movie was actually showing what true tornado damage in the Wakita tornado did. Like that's kind of what it is like to run across tornado damage at night. I never seen that myself as I don't chase at night when it comes to tornadoes.....well....we never get those in the Northeast at night so yeah......anyway it was a good perspective of that for Hollywood and the film producers to show the reality of true tornado damage. The mesonet quote that Joe makes is so good....like they really did their research too in that scene too. Still even with all the flaws of the movie this has, this is basically our meteorology movie and what many of us 80s/90s kids that got us into meteorology and no shit it's quotable as hell cause why not. :P
First time finding your channel, and I've always been fascinated in weather and meteorology. Twister was 100% the reason I began researching on my own when I was younger, and I loved all the detailed explanations you gave throughout the video. Truly intriguing that you even went as far as to recreate the background environment to reiterate your points.
I survived the tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20, 2013. The tornado hit my house, and the wind picked up my car and threw it almost a mile away. The car was a lightweight drift car that I had heavily modified. It's crazy to say that a tornado can't lift a vehicle and carry it for a long distance.
The Moore tornado was an extremely intense EF5, far more intense than to the first tornado in the movie (if that’s the part you’re referring to). The latter would not be able to suspend a truck high in the air for nearly a minute before it crashed down to the surface.
I think the movie is trying to show what a tornado CAN do - what CC is pointing out, is that SPECIFIC tornado likely wouldn't toss the Jeep in that manner.
I know I’m not smart with the subject of weather but I really enjoyed how the tornadoes seemed to have personalities in the film. It did an amazing job at personifying the tornadoes while also still keeping the unpredictability of the twisters
Just watched Twister for the first time yesterday (late to the game, I know -) and can’t believe my fav weather channel is now breaking it down today. Hell yeah, thank you!
THIS WAS SO FUN!!!!! And educational!!! Every time I watch the tornado scene after Bill crashes Jo’s truck, I’m going to think about how they’re depicting outflow instead of inflow. I will annoyingly point this out to anyone who will listen.
This was the second movie I saw in theaters. I was 6 when this came out. It was the movie that made me love tornadoes/weather and got me into watching The Weather Channel everyday before I went to school. Even now 28 years later I still feel the same way I did when I first saw this movie. I still watch The Weather Channel only for the weather. I dont't care for the other shows that are on the channel. R.I.P Bill Paxton.
Amazing work as always! It hits on the classic divide between what is realistic and what will be easily accessible to an uninformed viewer. For a movie like this to be truly accurate, it would have to incorporate elements/timing that only a meteorologist or storm fanatic could appreciate, therefore potentially boring regular audiences out. Hard to find a good balance but they did a pretty good job overall and you did even better at bridging the gap between them. Outstanding work!
Great breakdown of the true classic and a nod to twisters. Which I enjoyed but certainly doesn’t hold a flame to the original. It’s interesting the life-like qualities of a tornado. Even aside from what the movie depicts, there truly is something life-like about an actual tornado. Almost like bulls of the atmospheric pastures. From the way they move to the different shapes and sizes, it’s something that I’ve been mesmerized by since I was in diapers. A force that deserves great respect but holds a special place in my heart.
The sounding part was really cool. I can imagine the wave of discrete cells that I fired. Despite the Hollywood moments in the movie, I appreciate that they actually added a synoptic setup to the movie. The moisture was particularly juicy, and also the precipitation venting was a cool feature. Always loved that beastly wedge at the end, it reminds me a heck lot of Keota on March 31 last year. I also feel like the addition of the wedge being a bit higher up made it look more tempting, intimidating in some sort of way but maybe that's just me. This was a brilliant video to watch, I'd honestly suggest it to even non weather fanatics for the watch! Always the number 1 tornado film
Thank you so much! I agree; I appreciate the fact that they tried to add real meteorology into the movie, even if sometimes it was a bit off. That last tornado in the movie is my favorite; they did such a great job with the CGI.
You did such a good job with this! You managed to educate on the flaws and not ruin the movie 👏 I really need to rewatch the movie now. Maybe later you could do the same with Twisters.
It was cool to hear a decent amount of meteorological terms in the new Twisters. Twister will always be near and dear to me, but Twisters is just a bit better IMO. Both are great though!
Not me screaming "A belt wouldn't hold them! They would have been shredded by debris!!" but still somehow one of my all time favorite movies 😅. Have you considered doing a breakdown of The Day After Tomorrow? Or would that make your eye twitch 😂 Thank you for this, I really enjoyed it!
Thank you; I'm glad you enjoyed it! I actually enjoyed The Day After Tomorrow, but I think some of the phenomena in that movie are so farfetched that we wouldn't be able to draw any real meteorology from it. My eye would definitely twitch 😂
That tornado around Dallas like a decade ago flung multiple tractor trailers hundreds, if not thousands of feet. That footage got massive airplay nationwide and I don't think that was even an "historically significant" tornado. Gotta be careful about what you say a twister can and can't do because there's always exceptions - and most of them happen to be that Elie, Manitoba twister from 07 for whatever reason. That one also flung a tractor trailer, AND a brick house. Freak of nature, that one.
Only a couple minutes in and I already love this video, excellent work! One of my all time fav movies, I have been a weather/storm nerd ever since I saw it as a 10 year old kid!
Twister 1996 Has To This Day Still Some Of The Most Realistic Looking Tornadoes For A Tornado Movie That Was Made Back In The 90's Which Is Extremely Impressive For It's Time , And Still Is Today In My Opinion. I'm So Glad Twisters 2024 Kept The Realism Of The Tornadoes. Will A Meteorology Of It Be Released Too?
One thing that always through me off was part between the tornado that hit aunt Meg’s in Wakita and the final tornado. The one that hit the drive in and Wakita took place in the middle of the night. It was the main tornado was developing 25 miles away and when they got there it was the daylight. So did the tornado happen early in the morning? It didn’t seem so by the light. It could have been a different day I guess, but they all had the same clothes on and the scene before was them leaving Wakita to go towards it. I’ve tried to justify it but I think it was just a continuity issue.
Yeah, I think it's a continuity issue...you'd think an outbreak like this would just continue into the morning, but it seems it was afternoon by the lighting.
15:09 I hope I don't have a nightmare about this tonight! I actually felt a shudder of panic electrocute my spine! That is the most horrifying time of the day to be caught in the sight line of a tornado, completely obscured by the night and only visible by backlighting from the lightning flashes! I don't live anywhere near Tornado Alley, but holy crap, that scared me.
I just saw the movie. I would recommend seeing it. It really has nothing to do with meteorology, but it is a good movie. If there is one thing I would say it would be....If you "chase" tornados...why are you in front of it? Chase it from behind.
In some cases, like say Reed Trimmer, he's trying to get infront of the storm to launch sensors into it, to read its strengths and patterns. Being on the front side, is usually the vacuum side, so it sucks whatever you launched airborne into the storm with the best chance of success
I'm almost positive he's saying "the cone of silence," he just doesn't enunciate the word "of" well so it kind of sounds like he's saying "the cone is silent."
You know what, this could've been like a test for us who have followed you for a while. Could we use the info provided by the movie to make our own Skew T and holographs and predict what the environment was like? Thoroughly enjoyed this!
Holy Sh*t it all made sense. No, seriously your analysis was awesome. Very impressive for you to be able to create the Soundings and Hodograph from just looking at a few scenes of the movie. Very well done sir👏
I remember being so proud of myself when i caught the movie as an adult and finally understood what the hell aunt meg was talking about with her cows being gone out front.
I think the Manchester, SD tornado would be a good comparison tornado to “The Big Kahuna” as you referred to it😂 Reed Timmer’s footage of that tornado is breathtaking and is what got me into tornadoes in the first place back when I was a child
excellent, as always! Quick question....whose footage did they use during the Hail Hill chase? Or, did someone pull a Spielberg during filming or post?
Thank you! Are you referring to the real-world footage during that scene? I’m honestly not sure whose footage that was. I know Warren Faidley contributed the cover image, so perhaps it was his.
13:30 is that the radar image from the Barnsdall-Bartlesville tornado in May? I live in Bartlesville and was surprised to see that haha it looked familiar.
I love the scene at Aunt Meg's, but you're right, the timing isn't really there for such an awesome meal. I would love me some Aunt Meg's steak and eggs, though. Hard to eat when you're driving like crazy from Colby, Kansas to Des Moines to try to get to the next setup
This was a fun meteorological breakdown video to watch, and just fun to watch as well. @Convective Chronicles, I hoped you enjoyed analyzing the meteorology in the movie: Twister, and making the Twister meteorological breakdown video.
I sure wish I would have actually gone for meteorology like I started to in college, because this just so cool to hear. Just so interesting, much more so than my lame management degree.
I enjoyed this video! When I first saw Twister I had not yet studied Meteorology. It seemed so realistic! I know better now, but I still love this film!
Not gonna lie, ever since I originally got my first spotter certification at 16, this movie was all the more enjoyable...still is, and I'm looking forward to seeing Twisters.
I’m an old person so I was an adult when this movie came out. I’ve been a weather buff my whole life, and I sat there and just got absolutely sick about how bad the science was. I walked out of the theatre irritated and embarrassed. But I’m gonna give you a chance to redeem it. 😊
There’s an interesting tidbit about the first tornado of the movie. The beginning of the movie takes place in 1969, and the tornado that hit there was supposedly an F5. However, in 1969, there were no tornadoes that reached F5 intensity according to retroactive reports with the Fujita Scale. Another thing is the Fujita Scale wouldn’t be invented until a few years later, yet the meteorologist was saying it was an F5 tornado.
@@ROSTAFA That would be a good question for Ethan over at June First Severe Weather Research; he's much more knowledgeable than I am at the damage stuff.
i was in the theater watching Twisters recently and i kept rolling my eyes when they kept calling tornadoes by their scale on the Fujita scale before it even made any damages. 🤦 you cant tell what scale a tornado is until after the damages it makes is surveyed. nobody else in the theater was bothered by this. the original film is guilty of this too but not as bad as the sequel. at least the character of Kate admitted that going under the underpass in the beginning of the film was a bad idea, so at least they got that right.
I mean it's important but it's a movie so maybe go in less picky about the terminology...and there are cases where the size of a tornado can indicate what EF scale rating it'll fall into.. Usually large vortex tornados are EF3 and above, while skinny rope tornadoes are generally EF1 to EF2....I've seen a fair amount of metrologist and chaser RUclipsrs make the same estimations....
Man, I remember going to the Twister soundstage at Universal Florida back in the day. I graduated in 1998. We went on a band trip in April 1998 days after the Oak Grove F5. Still, I kept telling myself this is just a poor depiction of what our Jefferson County friends went through that night.
4:08 Good use of recent footage. This new clip very much reminds me of the 1966 Topeka KS tornado: ruclips.net/video/OsdSNfqcrUg/видео.html 9:57 The main reason for the face-palm nature of this scene is that the original script at this moment was attempting to realize the multiple vortex phenomenon. Nobody on the production team understood this but they did understand "many small tornadoes dancing around." Note that this is what the chasers arrived at while in pursuit of that single larger tornado from earlier. Where did it go? Correct: It was supposed to be a multi-vortex tornado here.
17:15-17:27 I mean the F5 was predicted at having winds excessing 300mph, which has happened numerous times. El Reno, most recent Greenfield, Bridge Creek, and while not radar confirmed, Tri State, Woldegk, Goessel, and Pampa had suggested winds excessing 300mph. There was even an instance in Alberta Canada in 2023, where an EF4 tossed a 22 ton Harvester 160ft, and proceeded to roll it 330ft. The only thing is the house would not roll across unless it was somehow dragged off the foundation, and was inside of the tornado for sometime before being spat out except the house is literally intact so that's not the case.
While there have been cases of tornadoes rolling and even lofting tanker trucks/semis, no tornado can really loft a semi that high, have it orbit around the vortex, and then chuck it out like this one did.
A quick question concerning the correlation of coefficient(?) on the modern radar scans. As far as I understand it, the more red it is the more uniform the particles in the air are, taking rain droplets as an example, they would all be rougly the same size. When a tornado starts lofting debris it then decreases the CoC because the size of the objects are vastly different from one another. Is that in the ballpark if how it works?
You got it! The red colors indicate a correlation coefficient near 1, which means that the particles are very similar to each other in terms of their dimensions/orientations. For example, if you have a volume full of similarly sized/shaped rain drops, then your correlation coefficient would be near 1. The blues/greens/blacks indicate decreasing correlation coefficient (away from 1), meaning that the objects are not similarly sized/shaped/oriented. For example, a volume full of rain drops along with things like boards, bricks, nails, leaves - tornado debris - would give you a decreased correlation coefficient.
Thank you a lot for the answer! It's honestly amazing how much data we can get by basically just shooting stuff with microwave and interpreting the data that comes back!
Awesome video, i love analysis videos like this, a video discussing the 2014 film Into the Storm would be very cool as well since i know that film likely has its faults too
@@ConvectiveChronicles I recommend you watch it, the story isn’t as big or crazy like twister but it had amazing graphics and visuals. It’s a solid 7/10
Went and saw the original “Twister” back in 97 and the cleanliness of the vortexes and the calm of the wider ambient weather always bothered me, like a loose bit of sock in the toe of your boot but as two of the movies main actors have now passed this film still holds a bit of a soft spot for the nostalgia….even if the original trailer had a rather famous piece of debris that the movie itself didn’t include.
Lifted index is still sort of a derived parameter, since you need to derive the parcel trace at each location to calculate it. CAPE is also a derived parameter, as it's the integration of the area between the parcel trace and the temp profile on a skew-T.
I’m almost positive he says “the cone of silence,” he just doesn’t enunciate the word “of” very well, so it might sound a bit like “the cone is silent.”
I always took as them being expert chasers and seeing probably every type of tornado and the aftermath they probably have a good gauge on guessing the type it will be...so it's purely guessing on their part...
I always wonder, why they just couldn't make very accurate, in terms of meteorology, tornado movie. The nature already provides us with lots of freak and extreme weather events that can happen, so why not make the worst case scenario tornado outbreak that could be possible
There's also a moment where Bill is driving through the F2/ water spouts scene and joe says they're in the core and they can't attack it from the south or they'll get rolled ?? What did she mean???
9:45 you're referencing the enhanced fujita scale which is based off of damage. Back during the time of this movie the regular fujita scale was the only scale being used. Which was based on estimated wind speed. The enhanced fujita scale didn't exist until 2004. For the time of the movie (1996), It was correct.
The script originally had a tornado lasting for an entire day. The meteorological consultants said that would be impossible, but a tornado outbreak with multiple damaging tornadoes would be.
God I'm glad they didn't do that
IIRC Bill paxton wanted to make a sequal based on the tri-state tornado, which i could see would be a very long lasting tornado time wise. although we also had a recent tornado outbreak several years ago with a similar very long track tornado
Kind of wild that movie studios used to listen to consultants instead of creating the next sharknado bs. 😢
@@jjjacerLike the Quad-State supercell? (The one that spawned two long-tracked, powerful tornadoes)
@@CrystalWings12 yeah thats the one i was thinking of
In short, the outbreak scenario _Twister_ presents is surprisingly plausible, even if the tornadoes themselves behave in Hollywood fashion. Definitely a fun little video, though, and definitely helps to explain the basics of how synoptic patterns work to the less educated.
The sounds of the storms really created more fear. It’s one of my favorite parts of the movie.
I agree…they’re not realistic but they give the tornadoes a life-like quality
It may not be the most accurate movie ever made, but I think we should definitely acknowledge the fact that many storm chasers and meteorologists today became interested in that field because of it. I must've watched it dozens of times when I was growing up. I became super interested in tornadoes as a result.
100%...it's been very influential in my life and endeavors into meteorology/storm chasing. Even with its flaws, it's still the best tornado movie ever and it's not close.
@@ConvectiveChronicles I think it is safe to say that Twister is largely responsible for this generation of chasers and meteorologists.
Well DAMN THAT WAS GOOD! I didn’t expect you to dive that deep into! Awesome job, hell yeah!
Thank you so much!
One thing that I noticed as a pretty big mistake in the movie was that the F5 tornado was being predicted during the middle of the night when the team was assessing the damage in Wakita. Then when the team gets to the F5 it is the middle of the afternoon which means that the tornado must’ve been on the ground for over 7-8 hours which is unheard of. Also the convective evolution likely would’ve become less favorable for tornadoes as the night progressed, along with the thermodynamic and kinematic environment.
Yep, exactly
I was watching it last night and was thinking same went from night time and movie was playing so had be around 9 clock than it's bright beautiful day with monster f5 ripping thru. Somaybe I'd say 12 hrs least it had be on ground or maybe it reproduced on same parent cell
Or even in beginning that f5 when she was a kid was at night amd showed damage in morning but still doesn't mean just happened
Daytime AM hour tornadoes in the plains states are exceptionally rare (although we did have a few this year). In the southeast, they occur more often but rarely get up into the violent range.
I just assumed when watching the movie they were chasing a different tornado the next afternoon. But then I remember the radio announcement about the "F5 maxi twister".
@@scarpfish huh? Nocturnal tornados are rare the average time they fire up is when sun going down
I've always laughed at the waterspout scene with the high pitched sound and then the weird blubbery fish noise. Extremely odd sound design choice but I think it was to make the tornadoes out to kind of be "characters" in their own right.
Just got out of Twisters. It's overall a very good movie that also does a good job at trying to be scientifically accurate, but did also provide me with some eye-rolls with the way they used some of the terminology. I can't wait to see you break it down and see what your thoughts are.
I looking forward to see such a video with Twisters. A new Twisters is awesome in my opinion.
It was awesome, I loved it. 👍
The Twisters movie was crap and cheap reboot, also it was more fiction than truth .
@@Cheetor89 it was far from crap and cheap. Also you know it's not a documentary also right? Like the original was an ocean of inaccuracies from real world tornadoes too.
In my headcanon, the first tornado they encounter is a landspout that quickly formed under a new developing updraft (uniform round flat cloud base, no RFD cut yet), intensifying as the storm developed a more robust meso, not too dissimilar to the 1997 Jarrell F5 or the 2007 Elie Manitoba F5. The film version appeared more like the latter, including the fact that it developed in a more traditional supercell environment, had a more "loopy" rope-out like appearance before strengthening into a violent drillbit, even so far as shredding a barn and lofting vehicles! The film one might have formed along an outflow boundary of some of the previous storms seen early on in the film when Jo and Bill first meet, which I think may be plausible with the strong low level instability you mentioned in the vid. Anyways, this was a really interesting & well made video, I've always wondered about the setup in this movie, it was great to see an in depth analysis of it!
Also, I know its not in the USA, but have you thought of doing an analysis video for the 2007 Elie F5? It was such a bizzare tornado and I think it would enjoy taking a deeper dive into it!
Thank you! I agree with you; Elie is a pretty good analog for that first tornado. And yes, I actually was planning on doing an Elie breakdown before I started my storm chasing tour season this past year, but I ran out of time. So it is #1 on my list once we get through the case studies from this past season!
My first ever birthday present I remember was Twister on VHS. I can't believe how awesome this breakdown is and gotta share this video!
Thank you!!
This is just.... awesome. If they make a third movie, they should hire you as a consultant!!
Thank you!
This one deserves a lot of recognition. No one is doing it like you Trey! The editing on this as you move through the film is really well done
Thank you!!
As a man who lives on Ring of Fire country with 500 volcanoes, I appreciate your video about Twister. Me watch twister since 2000 when my mother buy CD of Twister movie and make me follow any stormchaser like Reed Timmer, Skip Talbot, etc.
I can thank this movie for really getting my interest in severe weather going. I've probabaly watched it close to 1000 times over my life. Still very much my favorite movie, even with it's flaws.
That is true; the roar of a tornado is very distinct, and you just know what's coming when you hear it. It's higher pitched than thunder, much like a freight train, metro rail, or jet engine, and simply becomes louder and louder as it approaches. You can hear the wind howling and growling in some instances, such as in some footage of the May 3rd F5, the audio of the Xenia F5, the Clem Schultz clip, and clips of the Tuscaloosa EF4, to name a few. Some wedge tornadoes in the past have also had a tall base, such as the Jarrell F5 and the Andover F5.
Every video Ive heard, especially of violent tornadoes, they sound like waterfalls. Specifically the water rushing right off the edge
Yeah, a tornado's roar is such a distinct sound. In my experience, there is usually an audible waterfall-type sound or some sort of low rumbling.
@@jaredpatterson1701 waterfall is another one. Very distinct sound, low rumble that is higher pitched than thunder, but a clear indication of something powerful
@@ConvectiveChronicles from a distance it does sound like a waterfall, especially violent ones. However, the second they are starting to approach you? The best comparison I can make is if you’ve ever ridden a metrorail, whether it be a subway or an above ground metro like in Miami Dade county, it sounds exactly like that. Clem Schultz video and many videos of the Phil Campbell Hackleburg EF5 capture this sound
@@dannyllerenatv8635 I'll be honest, I've never understood the freight train comparison. I've been very close to some strong to violent tornadoes and that waterfall sound is pretty persistent, even at close range.
I think I enjoyed the last 10 or so minutes as much as anything I can remember watching lately. Awesome video.
Thank you so much!
This is an excellent idea! You should definitely look into more topics that help bridge the gap between us hardcore weather enthusiasts and the general public with content both groups can enjoy.
Always a fun deep dive into this movie. I remember growing up and even in college and high school pointing out all the flaws of the movie but as you said, they did at least try to incorporate some meteorology. I think the most clever idea they did in the movie was actually showing what true tornado damage in the Wakita tornado did. Like that's kind of what it is like to run across tornado damage at night. I never seen that myself as I don't chase at night when it comes to tornadoes.....well....we never get those in the Northeast at night so yeah......anyway it was a good perspective of that for Hollywood and the film producers to show the reality of true tornado damage. The mesonet quote that Joe makes is so good....like they really did their research too in that scene too.
Still even with all the flaws of the movie this has, this is basically our meteorology movie and what many of us 80s/90s kids that got us into meteorology and no shit it's quotable as hell cause why not. :P
Always love a good rewatch every year or so :D
Excellent video. This remains my all time favorite movie
Thank you! Same here!
Excellent work. As a huge fan of Twister, and as a stormchaser, this was fascinating on several different levels. Thank you!
Thank you so much!
First time finding your channel, and I've always been fascinated in weather and meteorology.
Twister was 100% the reason I began researching on my own when I was younger, and I loved all the detailed explanations you gave throughout the video. Truly intriguing that you even went as far as to recreate the background environment to reiterate your points.
Thank you so much!
I survived the tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20, 2013. The tornado hit my house, and the wind picked up my car and threw it almost a mile away. The car was a lightweight drift car that I had heavily modified. It's crazy to say that a tornado can't lift a vehicle and carry it for a long distance.
The Moore tornado was an extremely intense EF5, far more intense than to the first tornado in the movie (if that’s the part you’re referring to). The latter would not be able to suspend a truck high in the air for nearly a minute before it crashed down to the surface.
I think the movie is trying to show what a tornado CAN do - what CC is pointing out, is that SPECIFIC tornado likely wouldn't toss the Jeep in that manner.
I know I’m not smart with the subject of weather but I really enjoyed how the tornadoes seemed to have personalities in the film. It did an amazing job at personifying the tornadoes while also still keeping the unpredictability of the twisters
Just watched Twister for the first time yesterday (late to the game, I know -) and can’t believe my fav weather channel is now breaking it down today. Hell yeah, thank you!
Nice! I hope you enjoyed it!
THIS WAS SO FUN!!!!! And educational!!! Every time I watch the tornado scene after Bill crashes Jo’s truck, I’m going to think about how they’re depicting outflow instead of inflow. I will annoyingly point this out to anyone who will listen.
Haha thanks so much, Lauren!
Great analysis as usual, cool to see that there's some meteorological accuracy. I definitely need to see this movie now
Thank you!
Could you do Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs next?
Hahaha that was my absolute favorite book when I was little. I’m still waiting to see a tomato tornado…
This was the second movie I saw in theaters. I was 6 when this came out. It was the movie that made me love tornadoes/weather and got me into watching The Weather Channel everyday before I went to school. Even now 28 years later I still feel the same way I did when I first saw this movie. I still watch The Weather Channel only for the weather. I dont't care for the other shows that are on the channel. R.I.P Bill Paxton.
Amazing work as always! It hits on the classic divide between what is realistic and what will be easily accessible to an uninformed viewer. For a movie like this to be truly accurate, it would have to incorporate elements/timing that only a meteorologist or storm fanatic could appreciate, therefore potentially boring regular audiences out. Hard to find a good balance but they did a pretty good job overall and you did even better at bridging the gap between them. Outstanding work!
Thank you so much! Well said!
This movie probably had a subtle impact on my buying a Dodge 2500 lol
Great breakdown of the true classic and a nod to twisters. Which I enjoyed but certainly doesn’t hold a flame to the original. It’s interesting the life-like qualities of a tornado. Even aside from what the movie depicts, there truly is something life-like about an actual tornado. Almost like bulls of the atmospheric pastures. From the way they move to the different shapes and sizes, it’s something that I’ve been mesmerized by since I was in diapers. A force that deserves great respect but holds a special place in my heart.
Thank you! Well said!
The sounding part was really cool. I can imagine the wave of discrete cells that I fired. Despite the Hollywood moments in the movie, I appreciate that they actually added a synoptic setup to the movie. The moisture was particularly juicy, and also the precipitation venting was a cool feature. Always loved that beastly wedge at the end, it reminds me a heck lot of Keota on March 31 last year. I also feel like the addition of the wedge being a bit higher up made it look more tempting, intimidating in some sort of way but maybe that's just me. This was a brilliant video to watch, I'd honestly suggest it to even non weather fanatics for the watch! Always the number 1 tornado film
Thank you so much! I agree; I appreciate the fact that they tried to add real meteorology into the movie, even if sometimes it was a bit off. That last tornado in the movie is my favorite; they did such a great job with the CGI.
You did such a good job with this! You managed to educate on the flaws and not ruin the movie 👏 I really need to rewatch the movie now. Maybe later you could do the same with Twisters.
Thank you so much! I will definitely consider doing a video on Twisters.
It was cool to hear a decent amount of meteorological terms in the new Twisters. Twister will always be near and dear to me, but Twisters is just a bit better IMO. Both are great though!
this was the best video for my special interest I genuinely have seen on RUclips
Not me screaming "A belt wouldn't hold them! They would have been shredded by debris!!" but still somehow one of my all time favorite movies 😅. Have you considered doing a breakdown of The Day After Tomorrow? Or would that make your eye twitch 😂 Thank you for this, I really enjoyed it!
Thank you; I'm glad you enjoyed it! I actually enjoyed The Day After Tomorrow, but I think some of the phenomena in that movie are so farfetched that we wouldn't be able to draw any real meteorology from it. My eye would definitely twitch 😂
Thank you for going through this and explaining everything! I don't think I could sit through either movie because I would be cringing too hard lol.
Trey, this was such a cool video! Thank you so much for taking the time to pull this together!
Thank you, Rhi!
The vibe of this whole video gives me Cinemassacre Monster Madness vibes, and I totally love it
You need to do one of these for Twisters as well. I just saw Twisters on Saturday, and much of it was quite realistic.
Wheyy trey uploaded! Thanks trey :)
That tornado around Dallas like a decade ago flung multiple tractor trailers hundreds, if not thousands of feet. That footage got massive airplay nationwide and I don't think that was even an "historically significant" tornado.
Gotta be careful about what you say a twister can and can't do because there's always exceptions - and most of them happen to be that Elie, Manitoba twister from 07 for whatever reason. That one also flung a tractor trailer, AND a brick house. Freak of nature, that one.
Hence the qualifier “almost” impossible
Those were box trailers and they were empty, not filled with thousands of gallons of fuel that weighs a lot.
Only a couple minutes in and I already love this video, excellent work! One of my all time fav movies, I have been a weather/storm nerd ever since I saw it as a 10 year old kid!
Thank you! I agree; this movie is one of my all-time favorites and was very consequential in my journey into meteorology!
Great vid as always, Trey! Can't wait for the Twisters version.😃 Loved the SkewTs! Great analysis in general!🎉
Thank you so much!
Twister 1996 Has To This Day Still Some Of The Most Realistic Looking Tornadoes For A Tornado Movie That Was Made Back In The 90's Which Is Extremely Impressive For It's Time , And Still Is Today In My Opinion.
I'm So Glad Twisters 2024 Kept The Realism Of The Tornadoes. Will A Meteorology Of It Be Released Too?
I am definitely considering it!
One thing that always through me off was part between the tornado that hit aunt Meg’s in Wakita and the final tornado. The one that hit the drive in and Wakita took place in the middle of the night. It was the main tornado was developing 25 miles away and when they got there it was the daylight. So did the tornado happen early in the morning? It didn’t seem so by the light. It could have been a different day I guess, but they all had the same clothes on and the scene before was them leaving Wakita to go towards it. I’ve tried to justify it but I think it was just a continuity issue.
"Movie went from night to day in seconds"
*cinema sins ding* 🔔
Yeah, I think it's a continuity issue...you'd think an outbreak like this would just continue into the morning, but it seems it was afternoon by the lighting.
They also predicted the F4 cell and would merge to create the F5......is that even possible for tornadoes to merge??
@@truckercowboyed2638 Yes, tornadoes can merge. We've seen a couple of examples of that, in particular the El Reno-Piedmont F5 on May 24, 2011.
15:09
I hope I don't have a nightmare about this tonight! I actually felt a shudder of panic electrocute my spine! That is the most horrifying time of the day to be caught in the sight line of a tornado, completely obscured by the night and only visible by backlighting from the lightning flashes! I don't live anywhere near Tornado Alley, but holy crap, that scared me.
I just saw the movie. I would recommend seeing it. It really has nothing to do with meteorology, but it is a good movie. If there is one thing I would say it would be....If you "chase" tornados...why are you in front of it? Chase it from behind.
In front can actually give some of the best views of the tornado, as long as it’s done safely
Or to the side, which I prefer. Harder to see, granted, not as photogenic either, but I'm not doing it for the pix.
In some cases, like say Reed Trimmer, he's trying to get infront of the storm to launch sensors into it, to read its strengths and patterns.
Being on the front side, is usually the vacuum side, so it sucks whatever you launched airborne into the storm with the best chance of success
I *think* homie says, "The Cone is silent," instead of, "the Cone of Silence."
I’ve always thought the same, which would make a lot more sense in this context. He was being rather poetic, which I liked. 😊
I'm almost positive he's saying "the cone of silence," he just doesn't enunciate the word "of" well so it kind of sounds like he's saying "the cone is silent."
You know what, this could've been like a test for us who have followed you for a while. Could we use the info provided by the movie to make our own Skew T and holographs and predict what the environment was like? Thoroughly enjoyed this!
Thank you! That’s an interesting idea!
Holy Sh*t it all made sense.
No, seriously your analysis was awesome. Very impressive for you to be able to create the Soundings and Hodograph from just looking at a few scenes of the movie. Very well done sir👏
Thank you so much!
So glad u made this just watched it last night and needed this i had so many questions
Any chance we'll get a breakdown of the Twisters as a sequel to this video? Would love to see it!
I will definitely see what I can do!
This was a brilliant video on so many levels. Well done.
Thank you so much!
I remember being so proud of myself when i caught the movie as an adult and finally understood what the hell aunt meg was talking about with her cows being gone out front.
I think the Manchester, SD tornado would be a good comparison tornado to “The Big Kahuna” as you referred to it😂 Reed Timmer’s footage of that tornado is breathtaking and is what got me into tornadoes in the first place back when I was a child
Good analog! Reed’s footage from that tornado is so good
excellent, as always! Quick question....whose footage did they use during the Hail Hill chase? Or, did someone pull a Spielberg during filming or post?
Thank you! Are you referring to the real-world footage during that scene? I’m honestly not sure whose footage that was. I know Warren Faidley contributed the cover image, so perhaps it was his.
LMAO. I am dying over here. "Let's just enjoy this scene without debunking it."
It’s the best scene ever with my favorite line delievery ever
I own 4 different 90's dodge Rams. All because of the movie twister. Lol. I loved the og movie so much as a kid.
13:30 is that the radar image from the Barnsdall-Bartlesville tornado in May? I live in Bartlesville and was surprised to see that haha it looked familiar.
Yes, it is!
This was a fun and surprisingly informative video, thanks!
Thank you!
I love the scene at Aunt Meg's, but you're right, the timing isn't really there for such an awesome meal. I would love me some Aunt Meg's steak and eggs, though. Hard to eat when you're driving like crazy from Colby, Kansas to Des Moines to try to get to the next setup
This was a fun meteorological breakdown video to watch, and just fun to watch as well. @Convective Chronicles, I hoped you enjoyed analyzing the meteorology in the movie: Twister, and making the Twister meteorological breakdown video.
Thank you!
I sure wish I would have actually gone for meteorology like I started to in college, because this just so cool to hear. Just so interesting, much more so than my lame management degree.
I enjoyed this video! When I first saw Twister I had not yet studied Meteorology. It seemed so realistic! I know better now, but I still love this film!
Thank you; glad you enjoyed it! Despite its flaws, it’s still such a great film!
I’ve been waiting for this video for 25 years! Thank you!!! 🤩🫶
Great analysis as always, any plans for a tornado forecast for the fall season?
Thank you! I probably will do something in August regarding what might be in store for the second season
awesome video Trey, I haven't seen this movie yet waiting to get to, Original twisters is my favorite tornado movie ever
Thank you! Yeah, the original Twister is my all time favorite
Fantastic breakdown Trey!
Thank you!
This was exceptional, and far more in depth than anyone could ever expect. I don't understand basically anything, but it doesn't even matter ha ha.
Thank you!
Not gonna lie, ever since I originally got my first spotter certification at 16, this movie was all the more enjoyable...still is, and I'm looking forward to seeing Twisters.
I’m an old person so I was an adult when this movie came out. I’ve been a weather buff my whole life, and I sat there and just got absolutely sick about how bad the science was. I walked out of the theatre irritated and embarrassed. But I’m gonna give you a chance to redeem it. 😊
Bill is the extreme! He can tell what a storm is thinking
There’s an interesting tidbit about the first tornado of the movie. The beginning of the movie takes place in 1969, and the tornado that hit there was supposedly an F5. However, in 1969, there were no tornadoes that reached F5 intensity according to retroactive reports with the Fujita Scale. Another thing is the Fujita Scale wouldn’t be invented until a few years later, yet the meteorologist was saying it was an F5 tornado.
Yes, good catch!
@convectivechronicals Thank you for this. Appreciate the effort. Explains a lot to many non meteorologists.
Thank you!
@ConvectiveChronicles been looking for someone 2 break down these tornadoes in terms of category & where they fit on the Fujita scale.
@@ROSTAFA That would be a good question for Ethan over at June First Severe Weather Research; he's much more knowledgeable than I am at the damage stuff.
Fantastic on all fronts. But I'll give you the most props for pronouncing Jan's name right.
Thank you!
Great video! I really enjoyed it
Thank you!
i was in the theater watching Twisters recently and i kept rolling my eyes when they kept calling tornadoes by their scale on the Fujita scale before it even made any damages. 🤦 you cant tell what scale a tornado is until after the damages it makes is surveyed. nobody else in the theater was bothered by this. the original film is guilty of this too but not as bad as the sequel. at least the character of Kate admitted that going under the underpass in the beginning of the film was a bad idea, so at least they got that right.
I mean it's important but it's a movie so maybe go in less picky about the terminology...and there are cases where the size of a tornado can indicate what EF scale rating it'll fall into..
Usually large vortex tornados are EF3 and above, while skinny rope tornadoes are generally EF1 to EF2....I've seen a fair amount of metrologist and chaser RUclipsrs make the same estimations....
Man, I remember going to the Twister soundstage at Universal Florida back in the day. I graduated in 1998. We went on a band trip in April 1998 days after the Oak Grove F5. Still, I kept telling myself this is just a poor depiction of what our Jefferson County friends went through that night.
Huge W
4:08 Good use of recent footage. This new clip very much reminds me of the 1966 Topeka KS tornado: ruclips.net/video/OsdSNfqcrUg/видео.html
9:57 The main reason for the face-palm nature of this scene is that the original script at this moment was attempting to realize the multiple vortex phenomenon. Nobody on the production team understood this but they did understand "many small tornadoes dancing around." Note that this is what the chasers arrived at while in pursuit of that single larger tornado from earlier. Where did it go? Correct: It was supposed to be a multi-vortex tornado here.
17:15-17:27 I mean the F5 was predicted at having winds excessing 300mph, which has happened numerous times. El Reno, most recent Greenfield, Bridge Creek, and while not radar confirmed, Tri State, Woldegk, Goessel, and Pampa had suggested winds excessing 300mph. There was even an instance in Alberta Canada in 2023, where an EF4 tossed a 22 ton Harvester 160ft, and proceeded to roll it 330ft. The only thing is the house would not roll across unless it was somehow dragged off the foundation, and was inside of the tornado for sometime before being spat out except the house is literally intact so that's not the case.
While there have been cases of tornadoes rolling and even lofting tanker trucks/semis, no tornado can really loft a semi that high, have it orbit around the vortex, and then chuck it out like this one did.
LOVE THIS!!! Thank you Trey!!
Thank you!
A quick question concerning the correlation of coefficient(?) on the modern radar scans.
As far as I understand it, the more red it is the more uniform the particles in the air are, taking rain droplets as an example, they would all be rougly the same size. When a tornado starts lofting debris it then decreases the CoC because the size of the objects are vastly different from one another.
Is that in the ballpark if how it works?
You got it! The red colors indicate a correlation coefficient near 1, which means that the particles are very similar to each other in terms of their dimensions/orientations. For example, if you have a volume full of similarly sized/shaped rain drops, then your correlation coefficient would be near 1. The blues/greens/blacks indicate decreasing correlation coefficient (away from 1), meaning that the objects are not similarly sized/shaped/oriented. For example, a volume full of rain drops along with things like boards, bricks, nails, leaves - tornado debris - would give you a decreased correlation coefficient.
Thank you a lot for the answer! It's honestly amazing how much data we can get by basically just shooting stuff with microwave and interpreting the data that comes back!
Awesome video, i love analysis videos like this, a video discussing the 2014 film Into the Storm would be very cool as well since i know that film likely has its faults too
Thank you! I actually have not seen Into the Storm yet
@@ConvectiveChronicles I recommend you watch it, the story isn’t as big or crazy like twister but it had amazing graphics and visuals. It’s a solid 7/10
Went and saw the original “Twister” back in 97 and the cleanliness of the vortexes and the calm of the wider ambient weather always bothered me, like a loose bit of sock in the toe of your boot but as two of the movies main actors have now passed this film still holds a bit of a soft spot for the nostalgia….even if the original trailer had a rather famous piece of debris that the movie itself didn’t include.
Would it be fair to say that in terms of instability, that the lifted index is a measured value & a CAPE value is derived/calc’d?
Lifted index is still sort of a derived parameter, since you need to derive the parcel trace at each location to calculate it. CAPE is also a derived parameter, as it's the integration of the area between the parcel trace and the temp profile on a skew-T.
I always thought he said “The cone is silent.”?🤔
I’m almost positive he says “the cone of silence,” he just doesn’t enunciate the word “of” very well, so it might sound a bit like “the cone is silent.”
Still dislike how they just rate em as they see them.
Yeah, that was an error common throughout the entire film.
I always took as them being expert chasers and seeing probably every type of tornado and the aftermath they probably have a good gauge on guessing the type it will be...so it's purely guessing on their part...
Thanks, such a fun video!!
Thank you!
That was a great video! I hope you do one for the new movie one day!
Thank you!
I always wonder, why they just couldn't make very accurate, in terms of meteorology, tornado movie. The nature already provides us with lots of freak and extreme weather events that can happen, so why not make the worst case scenario tornado outbreak that could be possible
Surprised most of what they said was actual weather terminology and not made up.... Pre ratings aside
There's also a moment where Bill is driving through the F2/ water spouts scene and joe says they're in the core and they can't attack it from the south or they'll get rolled ?? What did she mean???
Haha yeah, I really have no idea…they were definitely not in the core.
Bro, this is great. I'm never not impressed by your vids, never.
Thank you so much!
also the F5 only leveled a barn and barns are usually a ef3-4 DI
same with the first tornado
but you gotta do something like this with into the storm
I've actually never seen Into the Storm...seemed way too cheesy
@@ConvectiveChronicles it is but it would make a good video imo
What a fun analysis
9:45 you're referencing the enhanced fujita scale which is based off of damage. Back during the time of this movie the regular fujita scale was the only scale being used. Which was based on estimated wind speed. The enhanced fujita scale didn't exist until 2004. For the time of the movie (1996), It was correct.
While you are correct, the point I'm making is that tornado ratings cannot be predicted before or during when the tornado actually occurs.
Watching Twister again, it's clear that most storm chasers want to be Paxton but the vast majority are actually more like the dork in the hat.