The Fact Checking of the film Twister How accurate was it

Twister fact check #7: 

While talking about Dorothy to the crew, they state how if they successfully deploy, they will be able to understand some of the complex dynamics involved within tornadoes and to increase warning time to 15 minutes.  In real life, this was successfully carried out for the first time in history in South Dakota in 2003.  There have been other successful deployments of in-situ instruments being very closely impacted by tornadoes that have been carried out by other field missions.

Twister fact check #8: 

The NSSL said that the cap was breaking and towers were going 30 miles up the dryline.  It is impossible to know when exactly the cap begins to break until storms initiate completely.  The line in the movie is slightly inaccurate.

Twister fact check #9: 

Bill mentions to Dusty that the sky is “going green.”  A green luminescence within clouds has nothing to do with an indication of a tornado; rather, it is indicative of a hail core as the sunlight that percolates through the clouds is refracted through the hailstones, giving a greenish/blueish tint to the clouds.

Twister fact check #10: 

Jonas tells Charles to do a sector scan on radar, and to keep looking for a hook.  You do not need a hook appendage (hook echo) on Doppler radar to have a mesocyclone.  Hook echoes do not always indicate a tornado, either.

Twister fact check #11: 

The first tornado of their storm chase is seen forming from Beltzer’s point of view.  Realistically, the formation that the movie depicts is a dynamic piping effect as the tornado descends from the mid-levels of the supercell.  Inflow air that is being sucked into the tornado constricts near the low-levels, and tightens to give a rope-like look.

Twister fact check #12: 

The first tornado of the day has no supercell characteristics surrounding it. No wall cloud, no inflow tail, or anything structurally correct.  It’s just a stratus cloud deck.  However, it is possible to have such high based tornadoes in real life.

Twister fact check #13: 

The first tornado obliterates a barn and two grain bins.  The size of a tornado in real life is not an indicator of its strength, and there have been cases of EF-4 and EF-5 tornadoes that have had a rope or stovepipe structure to it.

Twister fact check #14: \

Bill and Jo take cover under the bridge.  That is something that you should never do when seeking shelter from a tornado.  The tornadic winds can channel underneath an overpass and increase tremendously, and your chances of death increase as a result.

Twister fact check #15: 

When Melissa, Bill’s wife, says “oh my god” while driving towards the bridge, the tractor that was on top of the bridge can be seen near the side of the road after it was thrown by the tornado.  If a tornado is violent enough, it can throw vehicles hundreds or even thousands of feet (such a case occurred on May 24th, 2011, in central Oklahoma).

Twister fact check #16: 

Jonas asks if there is an updraft shift over the radio.  There is no real visual way to tell if an updraft is changing its orientation.  Depending on the magnitude of wind shear, updrafts can have different tilts (especially with a significant increase in vertical shear).  Too much wind shear can also shear updrafts apart, leading to storm demise.

Twister fact check #17: 

Bill says: “Look at the updraft, the angle. It’s going to shift its track.” There is no way to determine where a tornado is going to turn, and looking at “updraft angles” is a fictitious statement.

Twister fact check #18: 

Lawrence says that there is an F-2, possibly F-3 tornado. There is no way to determine the strength of a tornado by looking at it.  A damage survey is to be completed to determine its strength (the EF-Scale was implemented in 2007 to refine tornado intensity with better damage indicators).

Twister fact check #19: 

Joey mentions that the tornado looks like it’s turning.  While you can visually see a tornado turn, you can’t predict where it will turn as mentioned above.  However, there are storm environments that can favor either left or right-moving supercells, and splitting or merging supercells.

Twister fact check #20: 

As they near the waterspout, Bill mentions horizontal rain in associated with the waterspout.  Horizontal rain has nothing to do with a tornado.  Rain can be horizontal due to severe outflow winds that carry the raindrops at great speeds as the drops fall out of the downdraft, but it does not indicate a tornado is present.

Twister fact check #21: 

Jo says: “Bill, we’re in the core.”  If one is in the core of a supercell, it is a dangerous place to be.  Extreme rain and very large hail can fall, and the core is within close proximity to where a tornado may form within a supercell.  She also mentions that they are running into the flanking line, which is incorrect.  The flanking line is a region of cumulus and developing cumulonimbi as the clouds near the updraft of the supercell.

Twister fact check #22: 

Their truck is over taken by the waterspouts. Unless if it is pure luck that the tornado is weak, their vehicle would have been tossed by the waterspout/tornado.

Twister fact check #23: 

While in Wakita, Oklahoma, visiting Jo’s aunt Meg, Dusty says that the television reported an F-3 tornado.  Again, there’s no way to tell a tornado’s intensity until a damage survey is conducted.

Twister fact check #24: 

They leave Wakita, Oklahoma, only to end up near Ames, Iowa, for the fourth tornado in the film. There is no possible way to make it that distance while driving and still have daylight given they left Wakita in the afternoon.

Twister fact check #25: 

Joey says: “We got a touchdown!” by looking at the velocity scans on radar. There is no way to confirm a tornado by looking at the velocity data, and it was not possible to confirm tornadoes by radar until the implementation of dual-polarimetric radar that has capabilities of detecting non-meteorological objects such as debris.

Twister fact check #26: 

When Beltzer says “Yeah, I got it, Billy.  This is the best motion we’ve ever seen, it’s like a piece of this fatty is over a half mile wide” there is a highway sign with the state of Texas on it.  Yet where the tornado occurs in this upcoming scene was in Iowa.

Twister fact check #27: 

When the hail starts to fall as Bill and Jo near the tornado it is small, water coated hail.  While all sizes of hail occur within a supercell, the larger hailstones are found closer to the updraft to the core.  Sometimes, large hailstones can be flung out long distances from the downdraft. In regards to violent tornadoes, most cases of hail size during EF-5 rated tornadoes have been baseball size or larger.

Twister fact check #28: 

It is possible for tornadoes to throw all sorts of debris, including some great distances as vertical winds can get underneath debris such as vehicles (or a boat such as in the movie).

Twister fact check #29: 

They say that the tornado is back-building. Tornadoes do not back-build. Back-building occurs within clusters of thunderstorms as thunderstorms continue to initiate upwind of the storm (or behind it).  This is due to weak mid-level winds that can steer storms.  While they may appear stationary, the downwind cells fizzle out and the upwind storms are the most rigorous. Flash flooding is a major risk during a back building thunderstorm event.

Twister fact check #30: 

During the drive-in movie theater scene, the crowd of people at the drive-in were Kansas State University broadcast students. They were casted as extras in the film.  Lawrence takes shelter in his truck, which you should never do during a tornado as it can easily loft the vehicle.

Twister fact check #31: 

After the tornado, Beltzer mentions to Melissa that they experienced downdrafts and microbursts.  The downdraft is a completely separate component from the tornado; however, downdraft/outflow winds can be extremely intense and can sometimes cause extensive straightline wind damage.  A microburst is a rapid downward acceleration of air out of the downdraft, and can often lead to minor or major wind damage.

Twister fact check #32: 

When they arrive in Wakita again, the damage that you see in the movie was real.  However, part of the town was intentionally destroyed by the film crew as part of the movie set.  As a cameo, Jo’s parents at the beginning of the movie are briefly seen standing within the damaged area.

Twister fact check #33: 

Dusty says to Jo that the NSSL is predicting an F-5 the next day.  That is impossible to do, no matter how intense forecast parameters are.

Twister fact check #34: 

They say that the tornado hit Canton, Oklahoma. This is prior to impacting Wakita. That means the tornado track length in excess of 80 miles if it were to have occurred in real life.