Fact-checking 'Twisters': Can tornadoes really be stopped with science?
Spoiler alert! We're discussing important plot points and the ending of this summer's tornado-chasing thriller "Twisters" (in theaters now), so blow on down the road if you haven't seen it yet.
"Twisters" has twin interwoven storylines driving the mayhem forward.
One is the tension-filled chemistry between the disaster movie's protagonists, dueling storm chasers Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Tyler Owens (Glen Powell). The actors bring a totally believable zip to the brewing relationship.
The other is Kate's lifelong obsession with figuring out how to use science to make a raging tornado literally vanish literally into thin air. And on that count, we have largely ventured into the realm of the improbable.
Join our Watch Party!Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
Kevin Kelleher was a tornado consultant both on director Lee Isaac Chung's Oklahoma-rooted tale as well as Jan de Bont's 1996 original "Twister." Kelleher spent most of his career at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma.
The first film focused on deploying tiny flying balls into a tornado to better understand the DNA of that windy phenomenon. "It was accurate except for the fact that we didn't have tiny computers that could fit in small balls 30 years ago," he says.
Can you make a tornado vanish like in 'Twisters'? Only theoretically, expert says
Kelleher says that while it's now conceivable to replicate the tech in "Twister," that's not the case for "Twisters."
In the updated version, Kate's brainstorm involves chasing a massive tornado and performing a timed release of a few dozen big canisters of chemicals into the updraft, which reacts with the moisture in the funnel and eventually causes it to weaken and disappear.
Such tech would obviously be a boon to those communities that suffer damage and loss of life every year at the hand of tornados, largely Midwestern and Southern states. The science is technically sound.
"There are chemicals that can absorb water, and as we know, moisture and rain is a fuel for thunderstorms," Kelleher says. "Theoretically, if you remove moisture, you diminish the effects of a tornado."
That is indeed what we see in "Twisters" as Daisy single-handedly defuses a massive tornado as it's about to level a nearby town. She does so by driving a pickup into the path of the storm and dramatically popping the tops off her chemicals, watching as they get sucked into the vortex and, ultimately, neutralize the threat.
Unfortunately, Kelleher says, what we see in "Twisters" is not possible − for now.
"It's a matter of scale, really," he says, adding tornado experts agree that “to have any sort of effect remotely like this, you'd likely need 22,000 tons of this stuff, which you obviously couldn't just back onto a pickup truck's trailer and drive into a storm. So it's pretty science fiction at this point."
Radar panels that detect a tornado's shape exist, but are they as portable as 'Twisters' shows?
There's another high-tech component to "Twisters" that's worthy of inquiry. It involves a second group of storm chasers led by Javi (Anthony Ramos) who are trying to get more data by quickly surrounding the moving funnels with three door-sized radar panels that use triangulated data to conjure a computer-generated image of the tornado's structure.
In the movie, Javi and his team jump out of their trucks and within seconds pop their radar shields into place. Does such equipment exist? Yes and no. Again, it's about scale.
"For the movie, they basically miniaturized the radar (shields)," Kelleher says. "There really are devices that can (take images of tornado shapes), but to hop in and out of vans like that with them, no way. And they forgot that each one needs its own generator."
Kelleher says tornado science is an ever-evolving pursuit of data on a quirk of nature that repeatedly defies full understanding. The minute you think a tornado is about to form and touch down, it will vanish. And vice versa, as blue skies seem to morph into a menacing horizon in mere moments.
But given the lives and property damage at stake, the research into understanding this elusive phenomenon will continue, no matter how daunting the task, he says. Even small jumps in knowledge can lead to earlier warnings that might cut death tolls.
In the end, "Mother Nature is powerful, and we are not. Our ability to influence and change the weather is minimal."