Real-life storm chasers reveal what it's REALLY like studying twisters (2024)

As Twisters hits cinemas this weekend, adrenaline junkies might already be thinking about armouring up the family car and driving out to find their nearest tornado.

But, despite its claims of scientific accuracy, according to real-life storm chasers, the reality isn't quite so cinematic.

This sequel to the 1996 blockbuster 'Twister' stars Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones as storm chasers fighting against the odds to survive deadly tornadoes.

However, although scientists really do brave golf ball-sized hail and winds of up to 200mph, it isn't actually the tornado that presents the biggest danger.

Dr Wilson,a meteorologist from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, told MailOnline: 'What you see in the movies is all action, but 95 per cent of severe storms research is just driving around for long distances and then waiting in gas station parking lots in the middle of nowhere.'

In Twisters, Kate Cooper, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, is a scientist trying to test a radical new device that could stop tornadoes in their tracks.

But in reality, when scientists get close to tornadoes it isn't to stop them but to learn more about how they form.

For decades, scientists have known that tornadoes are linked to extremely violent weather events called 'supercell thunderstorms'.

In the 1980s scientists realised that these form in places where there is a big difference in the speed and direction of the wind at the ground level and up in the atmosphere.

To understand how this works, Dr Wilson says to imagine a pool noodle lying on the ground.

Dr Wilson told MailOnline: 'If you're rolling a pool noodle across the floor, you can think of that like horizontal rotation in the atmosphere.

'If you have a thunderstorm in that atmosphere it can actually ingest it and tilt it into the vertical - think about that pool noodle rotating on the floor and you suddenly bend one end upwards.'

As that vertical column spins,it draws air upwards, forcing the air to spin faster and draw even more air in a feedback loop which produces spectacularly violent storms.

These vast supercells are the birthplace of almost all tornadoes in the US but scientists are still not quite sure why some storms produce dozens of twisters and others none at all.

Just like any other scientists, researchers trying to understand tornadoes need to make measurements of the real world to form the basis of their mathematical models.

But what makes that process of data collection different to most other scientific disciplines is that it requires getting up close and personal with some of the most destructive forces in nature.

One of the biggest misconceptions about storm chasing is that the researchers aren't actually trying to get inside the tornado.

Dr Adam Houston, an atmospheric scientist and veteran storm chaser from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln told MailOnline:'That's obviously how things are portrayed in the films but we don't actually drive into the tornado to collect data.'

Perhaps surprisingly, this isn't due to the dangers of driving into a swirling column of destruction but rather simple scientific expediency.

'There's not that much to be gained, scientifically speaking our objectives are really focussed on the processes around the tornado and prior to tornado formation,' Dr Houston added.

'Obviously, you have to be aware of it because if the tornado forms you do not want to be hit by it.'

It isn't really the tornado itself that presents the biggest risk when researchers are out in the field but rather the dangers of simply being out on the roads during a major storm.

'One of the things that's changed is there are a lot more storm chasers out there,' Dr Houston says.

This is a good thing, according to the expert, since many of his crew got their experience as recreational storm chasers.

However, it can lead to increased risks.

'The bad thing is that it tends to be congested out there in the middle of nowhere so you're on these small country roads and you can have literally hundreds of people out in these storms,' he added.

'Just like any congested areas there are hazards; now add into that a supercell thunderstorm and it becomes even more dangerous.'

In the area of the storm Dr Houston specialises in, that risk is increased by hail which he says is the single biggest danger he faces.

Supercell storms not only produce tornadoes but also create hailstones the size of golf balls which, when driven by winds travelling hundreds of miles per hour, can be extremely dangerous.

Even with specialised 'hail cages', getting caught in a sudden blast of hail can smash the windshield or burst through the car's side windows.

Dr Houston recalls chasing a storm in Morton Texas as part of a research project in 2023.

'The storm was literally sucking dust off the fields and so the visibility would drop to zero,' he said.

'It didn't matter how good the roads were, it didn't matter whether you had radar in the car - you couldn't see the storm.'

To make matters worse, this particular storm kept 'redeveloping discreetly' - meaning it would suddenly 'jump' from one location to another.

In one of these jumps, the storm trapped one of the research vehicles inside a pocket of hail.

Dr Houston says: 'That's not just a problem because it damages the vehicle, but when you put a bunch of ice cubes on the road that makes it challenging to drive.'

Reduced to a crawl by the layer of tiny hail coating the roads, the researchers made for what they thought was a way out of the storm only to be hit by a wave of hail the size of tennis balls which were strong enough to damage the car.

'They didn't do anything wrong they just got into a spot that was dangerous, and it's easy to get into a bad situation even though you have all the information,' Dr Houston says.

However, as thrilling as these tales of high-stakes storm chasing might be, it doesn't really reflect the reality of being a tornado scientist.

Dr Wilson says that researchers will usually spend a large part of their time playing frisbee, chatting, or sampling some of the tornado belt's excellent barbeque.

And, of course, most films don't cover the years of detailed analysis that are required to unpack the data collected on a single field mission.

Dr Karen Kosiba is a meteorologist and experienced storm chaser from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne.

Her research focuses on using radar to study the low-altitude air currents that surround tornadoes as they form.

To get that data, Dr Kosiba and her team need to drive a massive radar truck, nicknamed COW, within one to two kilometres of the forming tornado - the closest any research would get.

However, she told MailOnline: 'I think most people would be disappointed because it's probably pretty boring - we're out there trying to get data and do the mission, we're not trying to be dramatic.'

Although she says that things can become 'a little bit more dicey' during fast-moving storms, for the most part, her team are generally just focused on getting the data they need.

'Tornadoes don't last long so you want to be efficient - you want to get people in place and then get people back into safety away from the tornado,' she added.

Just like Dr Houston, Dr Kosiba also says that the tornado itself is often not the biggest issue.

In fact, Dr Kosiba says her team will occasionally deliberately choose to drive through very weak tornadoes since the winds around the twister are stronger than those inside.

But the biggest difference between how storm chasing is presented in the movies is that studying tornadoes isn't something that anyone can do alone.

This year, Dr Kosiba's research unit was made up of four vehicles, each with three researchers, while the TORUS project, on which Dr Wilson and Dr Houston both worked, involved more than 50 researchers.

However, just like in the movies, the stakes of understanding tornadoes could be life or death.

Dr Wilson explains: 'We've gotten really good at catching the big ones that do a lot of damage - we know the environmental precursors that lead into that.

'But there are some situations on the timescale of half a day to a few hours where the environment can change in ways you didn't anticipate.'

In impoverished areas of the tornado belt where living in mobile homes is more common, that puts people at an extreme risk of being killed by tornadoes.

However, these real-life storm chasers are willing to put themselves in danger because they believe that deaths can be avoided if we properly understand how and why tornadoes form.

Dr Houston says: 'The fact of the matter is that tornadoes are small; they're a fraction of the size of an entire neighbourhood.

'I point this out because the number of people that are actually impacted by tornadoes in a given year is relatively small however the severity of the impact is huge.'

Tornadoes, Dr Houston says, are like plane crashes - they don't happen often, but when they do the results are catastrophic.

However, just as we have improved the safety of air travel, there are ways to reduce the risks posed by tornadoes.

Scientists still don't fully understand why some supercells produce tornadoes while others don't.

Dr Houston says: 'There are a lot of reasons to believe that there is enough predictability to give people the information they need to protect themselves.

'The biggest thing we as humans can do is to protect ourselves and our loved ones, and that's something information could give them if the forecasts are good enough.