Meteorologist who taught 'Twisters' cast talks about movie's accuracy, impact of original film

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HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — It’s been a week since “Twisters” starring Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar Jones was released in theaters.

The movie has been a hit, raking in $156 million at the box office in its first week

To prepare for filming, the “Twisters” cast and crew attended a weather class at the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma.

“This is real life for us. tornadoes are a thing we think about, especially during the springtime a lot,” Rick Smith, the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service, said. 

Smith taught a weather crash course to the cast and crew of “Twisters” on May 3, 2023.

Twisters cast (Courtesy of NOAA/James Murnan)
Twisters cast (Courtesy of NOAA/James Murnan)

The class focused mainly on storm spotter training, the science of tornadoes and tornado safety, as well as the anxiety and PTSD some Oklahomans have when it comes to severe weather. However, Smith also wanted to focus on the fun side of Oklahoma weather culture; high schools have mascots named after tornadoes, and people play weather bingo while watching severe weather coverage

This class allowed the cast and crew to have a new understanding of what it means to be a storm chaser in the Sooner State.

Twisters cast (Courtesy of NOAA/James Murnan)
Twisters cast (Courtesy of NOAA/James Murnan)

The cast and crew were even able to get a taste of Oklahoma weather while they were working on the film! In fact, before filming started, some of the cast members were in Oklahoma during the April 19, 2023, severe weather outbreak, giving one of the actors his own first-hand experience with Oklahoma’s severe weather.

From the start, the goal for the new “Twisters” movie was to be as scientifically accurate as possible.

“It is a movie,” he said. “So it can’t be 100% scientifically accurate”

The writers and directors still paid attention to key things like terminology and weather slang, using real storm chasers and National Weather Service employees as extras in the movie to immerse the actors in the storm-chasing culture.

Twisters cast (Courtesy of NOAA/James Murnan)
Twisters cast (Courtesy of NOAA/James Murnan)

“It wasn’t just Hollywood writers thinking this is what I think it would look like, it was meteorologists saying ‘I can tell you exactly what it would look like’ and then listening to it.”

The National Weather Service Office depicted in the movie was modeled after the National Weather Service Office in Norman Oklahoma.

If you haven’t seen the new “Twisters” movie yet (or you’re going to see it again,) keep your eyes open for the small details such as the weather notes that appear in the notebooks, transcribed from a meteorology student’s class notes at the University of Oklahoma.

“There’s a whole community of people here in the Oklahoma weather world that contributed in many different ways to them making what I think is a pretty good scientifically accurate movie.”

The cast received a glossary of storm chaser terms that they used as a reference while on set and throughout the movie, when radar is used, it’s based on radar images from real storms.

“I can see, and meteorologists can see, the care they took in getting every little thing just right with the movie, as much as they could.”

While the actors and crew from the 1996 “Twister” movie went storm chasing to prepare for filming, they did not experience an organized weather class like the cast and crew of “Twisters” got, but of course, during their training session, the “Twister” actors asked about the original movie.

Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Brisket at the “Twisters” Los Angeles premiere held at Westwood Regency Village Theatre on July 11, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)

Just like the public, the actors and crew from the new movie wanted to know what was real and what wasn’t in the original film, which inspired generations of meteorologists in a phenomenon known as the “Twister effect.”

The effect that brought double or triple the enrollment at the University of Oklahoma School of Meteorology after ‘Twister’ came out,” Smith said. 

That’s another topic Rick Smith included in his weather crash course for the cast. “You’re about to make another one of these movies and you could very well be influencing the next generation of meteorologists, so no pressure.”The good news is if you’re someone inspired by the movie, you can take a spotter training class just like the movie stars did! The nearby National Weather Service offices in Blacksburg, Virginia and Raleigh offer Skywarn Spotter classes, typically in the spring, that are free and open to the public! The class allows you to become a trained storm spotter and the class can even be completed online.

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