Severe Weather in |
The FDSMDFR in action!
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. Image: Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation.
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. Image: Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation.
Flint Lockwood is an inventor on the island of Swallow Falls. Flint creates a device that uses water and microwave frequencies to produce food. He calls this device the "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator", or "FLDSMDFR" for short. He ends up destroying the town's power when he connects the FLDSMFR to a power transformer box. After getting too much power, the machine rockets into the sky where it then converts the water droplets in the air into food producing clouds instead of normal weather processes.
Throughout the movie, Flint uses the machine to alter the chemistry within the clouds to produce food instead of precipitation. From the high demand of requests, the device gets overloaded, and the food starts to mutate into larger and larger portions. They get so big that the machine creates a super-tornado out of pasta.
Throughout the movie, Flint uses the machine to alter the chemistry within the clouds to produce food instead of precipitation. From the high demand of requests, the device gets overloaded, and the food starts to mutate into larger and larger portions. They get so big that the machine creates a super-tornado out of pasta.
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. Image: Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation.
I decided to do some research on the spaghetti tornado from the movie, but first I needed to learn more about real tornadoes. I had two questions that I wanted answers for: What are tornadoes and how are they formed?
So, what really are tornadoes anyways?
Harold Brooks from NOAA and NSSL describes a tornado as "a violently rotating column of air that extends between the earth's surface and a cloud, usually a cumulonimbus cloud." Smaller tornadoes usually last for up to ten minutes and larger tornadoes can last for around thirty minutes. (1) Sometimes a tornado can also last for up to an hour, but those ones are quite rare. The amount of time that a tornado is on the ground is important because it can affect how much damage it does. Scientists use the damage to estimate its wind strength and classify it.
And, how are tornadoes formed?
Tornadoes form when warm and moist air collides with cold and dry air. However, this is also how most thunderstorms are started, and tornadoes only form in extraordinary circumstances.
"The truth is that we don't fully understand. Tornado formation is believed to be dictated mainly by things which happen on the storm scale, in and around the mesocyclone." (2)
I decided to compare a simulated tornado from the weather channel with the spaghetti tornado from the movie to see just how accurate it really was.
Below you will see the two films that I used for comparison:
So, what really are tornadoes anyways?
Harold Brooks from NOAA and NSSL describes a tornado as "a violently rotating column of air that extends between the earth's surface and a cloud, usually a cumulonimbus cloud." Smaller tornadoes usually last for up to ten minutes and larger tornadoes can last for around thirty minutes. (1) Sometimes a tornado can also last for up to an hour, but those ones are quite rare. The amount of time that a tornado is on the ground is important because it can affect how much damage it does. Scientists use the damage to estimate its wind strength and classify it.
And, how are tornadoes formed?
Tornadoes form when warm and moist air collides with cold and dry air. However, this is also how most thunderstorms are started, and tornadoes only form in extraordinary circumstances.
"The truth is that we don't fully understand. Tornado formation is believed to be dictated mainly by things which happen on the storm scale, in and around the mesocyclone." (2)
I decided to compare a simulated tornado from the weather channel with the spaghetti tornado from the movie to see just how accurate it really was.
Below you will see the two films that I used for comparison:
The weather channel clip shows us the different wind speeds and the damage that they can cause. The wind speeds in a tornado can range from 65 mph (EF-0) all the way up to a monster tornado clocking out at 200+ mph (EF-5).
Once I got over the issue that it was made out of spaghetti instead of a column of rotating air, I was quite surprised by how well that the makers of the film depicted the tornado. They got the counterclockwise rotation right for the northern hemisphere, and the cloud formations were also accurate. The first time that I watched the movie I was convinced that everything was right on, but with closer inspection and more research I realized that damaged caused from the tornado didn't make as much sense. The funnel size of the tornado suggested that it was an EF-2 or even an EF-3, but the damage caused varied widely from that of an EF-2 to an EF-5.
I really liked this movie. In fact, I think I love it even more now that I know some more of the facts about the weather science behind the story!
I really liked this movie. In fact, I think I love it even more now that I know some more of the facts about the weather science behind the story!
Sources
1. Howard, Brian. Tornadoes: The Science Behind the Destruction, National Geographic 2014.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140430-tornadoes-meteorology-atmospheric-science-disasters/ accessed on 9/29/2018
2. Edwards, Roger. The Online Tornado FAQ, Storm prediction center NOAA 2018. https://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/ accessed on 9/28/2018
3. Cantore, Jim. video: A Tornado Hits The Weather Channel, The Weather Channel 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cODBQqaGTw accessed on 9/28/2018
4. Lord, Phil and Miller, Chris. video: Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs - Twister Shot Build. ImageworksVFX. CG animation: Sony Pictures Imageworks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cicnBRARuH0 accessed on 9/28/2018
1. Howard, Brian. Tornadoes: The Science Behind the Destruction, National Geographic 2014.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140430-tornadoes-meteorology-atmospheric-science-disasters/ accessed on 9/29/2018
2. Edwards, Roger. The Online Tornado FAQ, Storm prediction center NOAA 2018. https://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/ accessed on 9/28/2018
3. Cantore, Jim. video: A Tornado Hits The Weather Channel, The Weather Channel 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cODBQqaGTw accessed on 9/28/2018
4. Lord, Phil and Miller, Chris. video: Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs - Twister Shot Build. ImageworksVFX. CG animation: Sony Pictures Imageworks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cicnBRARuH0 accessed on 9/28/2018
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Nichole Green
Student