Inside storm chasing as tornado chasers share real-life experiences
OREFIELD, Pa. - Fox 29’s Meteorologist Drew Anderson made the big screen at a drive-in theatre in the Lehigh Valley Friday night.
Shankweiler's Drive-In held a meet and greet with real life tornado chasers and researchers before they showed the new film "Twisters."
Some of those local storm chasers stopped by FOX Weather Philly, FOX Local’s weekday 3:30 PM weather show, before they went up to the Lehigh Valley. They shared their firsthand experiences with tornadoes.
There were also meteorology students from Penn State and Millersville at the tornado chasers tailgate.
TORNADO TECHNOLOGY
Those Millersville students send drones into tornadoes.
The drones have instruments that gather data from the tornado. From that data, they hope to better understand how cloud height affects tornado formation.
Those Millersville students are a real-life version of the characters in "Twisters."
In the movie, the students position doppler radars around a tornado. That happens in real life, in a more safe way, with a "Doppler on Wheels."
But, the movie went off-road with its science when they had students sending water-absorbing chemical into tornadoes to end them.
Yet, the movie had a lot of moments where its science checked out.
MOST SCIENCE IN FILM "TWISTERS" CHECKS OUT
One thing they got right is discussing how you can get more rain out of storms.
If you send rockets of Silver Iodide into a storm cloud, as mentioned in the movie, it will expedite the rain-making process. Research says it'll also lead to more rain and snow out of that cloud.
States across the United States like Utah, California, and North Dakota "cloud seed."
There are even reports of China doing this with rain clouds heading toward the open air stadium of the 2008 Olympic opening ceremony. By making it rain sooner, the rain is gone by the time the cloud reaches a location down the line, like a stadium.
The movie was also correct when an actor said an overpass is the worst place to wait out a tornado.
When air gets squeezed, it moves faster. So, as air races toward a tornado, it would go between the barriers under an overpass, get squeezed, and become even stronger.
"Twisters" also did well with the concept that things on or near the ground move toward a tornado.
The original "Twister" didn't get that correct. That movie had cows flying away from a tornado. In reality, they should have been carried toward a tornado.
As air rises at a tornado, a massive amount of wind rushes toward the tornado to take the place of the rising air. This results in any loose debris getting swept toward the tornado.
"Twisters" showed debris on the ground doing just that. They also had a car and a tent get sucked toward a tornado.
If you want to learn more about how "Twisters" did with its science, Penn State meteorology professors and students discuss more scenes.
NEW METEOROLOGISTS?
By the way, the Penn State Meteorology Department saw a spike in their enrollment after the first "Twister" movie, and they attributed the rise to the film.
Time will tell if that happens because of "Twisters."
POPULAR FILM
What is clear is "Twisters" continues to draw big crowds locally.
Hundreds, around 400, came to Shankweiler's Drive-In Friday night, nearly a month after the film's release.
Even from the start, the movie drew big crowds.
There was an advance screening of the movie in Bucks County back in July, and the theatre was packed, according to local storm chasers in attendance.
Weeks later, people were lined up outside a different Lehigh Valley theatre waiting to get into "Twisters."