WEBVTT - How to Storm Chase Like A Pro 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:06.000 This is the most traumatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast. 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:11.880 Chris Harrison comany from the home office in Austin, Texas. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:17.200 I would say geographically just outside of Tornado Alley, which 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:19.000 is where I grew up, but growing up in Dallas 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.080 then going to school in Oklahoma. The reason I mentioned 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:25.720 that is our obsession with the movie Twisters, an absolute 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.800 box office hit with Glenn Palell, and everybody's been talking 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:35.400 about it. I shared a previous episode how during my 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.120 days in Oklahoma City, when I was in local news, 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:40.880 from time to time I would Stormchase and one of 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.640 the biggest events was in late May of ninety nine, 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:46.839 right before I left Oklahoma City. Actually I covered the 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:48.839 biggest tornado outbreak at the time and one of the 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:52.599 biggest tornadoes ever recorded. So the movie Twisters has kind 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:55.600 of hit near and dear to my heart. And I 0:00:55.760 --> 0:01:00.600 found this guy, Sean Waugh, who actually worked on the 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:05.520 movie Twisters. He was kind of the technical expert. They 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:09.640 recruited him and his teammates from the National Severe Storm Laboratory, 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.560 which is down there in Norman, Oklahoma, about thirty forty 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.480 five minute drive just south of Oklahoma City. It's where 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:18.720 the University of Oklahoma is but to ensure an accurate 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:23.520 portrayal of the chasing lifestyle of the storms, of the 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.360 phrases and terms that we're used. Sewn Wah, who actually 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:30.280 works he's a meteorologist, works in weather all the time. 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.559 They brought him in to work with the film crew, 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:35.800 the actors and everything, and I just thought, what a 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.600 great insight into one of our favorite films of the summer. 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:43.480 So let's bring on our guest, Sean Waugh. Sean, good 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:44.000 to talk to you. 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:44.280 Man. 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.160 It looks like you're in a tornado bunker. Are you 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:49.440 Are you safe right now? 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:52.960 Are you? I am safe right now. I'm actually in Norman, 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.080 Oklahoma at the National Weather Center. 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.200 Yeah, it's right down there in Norman, Oklahoma, next to 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:02.880 the campus of OU. I was in So I was 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.920 in Oklahoma City for ten twelve twelve years, I guess 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:09.800 because I went to Oklahoma City University but then worked 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:12.080 at Channel nine. And I'm sure you are familiar with 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.760 all the meteorologists and stuff up there and where weather 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.960 is king as we are in tornado season and we're 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:20.280 in the middle of tornado Alley. 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:21.440 Yeah, yeah, for sure. 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:23.800 Weather It's one of those things that everybody talked about 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:26.440 here like anywhere else in the world or in the country, 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:28.640 it's kind of like, oh, we're talking about the weather, 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:30.280 and you know here everybody gets really. 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:30.960 Excited about it. 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:33.760 There's this right of passage at a certain age where 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:35.880 you get you know, your the best weather app and 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.720 it's like we're all we're all you know, want to 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:42.760 be meteorologists. Now you know that. Before there's there's no 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.920 way anybody else had access to Doppler radar. Now I 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.400 have it in my own phone, and so have you 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:52.639 seen that explosion? With smartphones and everything, In all seriousness, 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.920 the amateur getting more and more involved in all of this, 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:58.519 and I and probably a good way, but I'm sure 0:02:58.520 --> 0:02:59.800 there's some bad to it as well. 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:00.760 Absolutely. 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:02.440 I mean, if you go back and you ask people 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:05.120 that have chased for you know, fifty sixty years, like, hey, like, 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:07.400 how did you guys see things back in the day, 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:09.880 The short answer is they really didn't most of the time. 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.320 And technology has certainly made a lot of the aspects 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:15.040 of what we do, you know, whether that be storm 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:18.680 chasing or severe weather research, whatever it's it's really helped 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:22.480 us like tune into things and do our job better. 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.360 But it's also opened the door to just people that 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.080 just want to come out and see what mother nature 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.359 has to offer to kind of view things. And not 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.919 that there's necessarily anything bad about that, but when it's 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:36.040 so easy to just pull up a radar app on 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.440 your phone, find the nearest tornado warning, and almost map 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.320 yourself to it, it ends up creating like huge traffic 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:45.720 problems on some of the events that I've seen, especially 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.800 in central Oklahoma, on days that just get really hyped up, 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.920 and I've actually had to abandon targets like pick a 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:55.320 completely different storm just because I turned down a road 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.600 and this road sees like ten cars a year, and 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:00.360 now there's a thousand. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.000 People on it and annually it's total gridlock. 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:04.640 I mean it looks like you're driving around in like 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.880 downtown Manhattan, you know, like just traffic jam everywhere. Everybody's 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.360 out on the road. You can't move. That's a huge 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:14.680 safety hazard. So I've actually like started factoring that into 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:15.920 my like work plan and stuff. 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.720 That is bizarre. So yeah, So, I mean one of 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:22.360 the things that's kind of manifested this conversation and everybody's 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.359 excitement is obviously the movie Twisters came out and it 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.440 has been a huge box office hit, as it was 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:30.240 back by the way in the mid nineties. When the 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:34.000 original came out in ninety six, I was very much 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:38.400 in the world of Oklahoma weather at the time. I 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.719 was working at KWATV Channel nine at the time for 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:45.240 you know, the god of all meteorologists, Gary England, the 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:48.520 legend and the man who I think had a hand 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:54.279 in creating Doppeler radar, which is crazy. But back then, 0:04:55.600 --> 0:05:01.440 there was never any Lookie Lose, never just some Joe 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.760 Schmoe with with any sort of even a CB radio 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.440 to figure out where these storms were. That's something we 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:10.720 never had to deal with. So you know that's scene 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:13.600 from the movie Twisters where there's hundreds of people in 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.640 a parking lot and they're all, you know, tourists. That's 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:17.240 a real thing. 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.680 Absolutely, I actually joke. I mean at this point, I've 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.680 seen the movie three times. It's tons of fun. You know, 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:25.800 if you haven't seen it, definitely go watch it. Go 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:26.560 watch it again. 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:29.000 It's a great ride. It's I've seen it twice already. 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:30.400 I'm not gonna lie. I've seen it twice. 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:31.160 Perfect. 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.880 The most unrealistic part of that movie when they're doing 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.480 the different chase scenes and it's only like the storm 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.120 par vehicles or Tyler's team on the road, Like that 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.080 is never the case in the real world. There are 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:46.920 so many people that are out on these storms, and 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:49.719 with social media and YouTube and you know, all of 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.520 these different streaming platforms like Twitch and things, everybody now 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.640 has access to that high quality imagery. I used to 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:00.120 go out with like a DSLR camera and now you 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:02.600 just take my phone because it takes better photos than 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:05.480 I could on a DSLR. Right, So it's really easy 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:08.360 for people to go out and put themselves in those positions, 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.240 but it can also be really like dangerous, right, because 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.000 if you don't know what you're doing, it's really easy 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:15.240 to get yourself into a position that you really shouldn't 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:17.719 be in, and you're kind of like flirting with things 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:20.400 that could like ultimately cause like a lot of harm. 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.240 Or these things are very deadly. Yeah, like yeah, this 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.880 kind of reminds me Sean of Mount Everest, which was 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.000 this elusive mountain and very few people would climb it. 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:32.719 And now you see these videos and it looks like 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:36.279 a day at the mall. There are hundreds and hundreds 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:40.200 of people lined up with sherpas, et cetera, and it's 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:43.240 it's almost lost some of the purity and the sanctity 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:44.640 of it. And I feel like this is kind of 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:45.280 the same thing. 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:46.480 Yeah. 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:50.160 Absolutely, And I mean if you roll back ten fifteen 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:52.919 ish years ago, that's when you first started really seeing 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.559 a lot of these storm chasing groups that started popping 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:56.880 up that offered tours. 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:57.920 Right, So if you. 0:06:57.880 --> 0:06:59.520 Didn't know what you were doing, and you wanted to 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:01.480 go out and wanted to see severe weather, you can 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.320 actually book yourself a tour very similar to like a 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:05.719 sherpa on Mount Everest. 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.960 Right. That just encourages people, And that's that's great. You know. 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:11.880 I love when people get to experience like mother nature 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.120 and weather and all the fascination and beauty that goes 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.200 along with it. But it has some downsides, which is 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:20.600 that you know a lot of people are like, well, 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:22.240 I don't need to pay for that. I can just 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:24.160 go out on my own my own car, right, Like 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:26.960 I have no training to climb Mount Everest, But nah, 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:28.760 people do it all the time. So I'll just I'll 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:30.000 just take a shirp and I'll just take on. 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:32.520 Me save everybody. A lot of a lot of money. 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:36.600 Just go rent a house in Oklahoma City for one 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:39.400 storm season. Trust me, the storms will find you. I 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.440 mean it was every afternoon. I find it crazy that 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:44.200 people are like, yeah, I'm gonna go find a storm. 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.480 I'm like, I wanted to get away from the tornadoes. 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:48.480 I grew up me. 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:50.400 I grew up in Dallas and then lived in Oklahoma 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.119 City for such a long time. Like, man, I'm I'm done. 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.280 I'm happy to be down here in Austin. I'm just below. 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:59.080 Like we may have like a small little f one 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.720 every now and nothing, you know, not a big deal. 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:04.560 I think the biggest one dropped many many years ago 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:07.240 up in Durrell and that was a big one. But yeah, 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:09.160 for the most part, we're pretty chill down here. 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:11.040 Yeah, yeah, for sure. 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.360 What are some other things As I'm watching the movie 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:18.880 and I'm fascinated by this, the juxtaposition to the first 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:24.240 one to the second one. The second one got very scientific. 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:27.640 It was really into the science, and the Bill Paxton 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.040 Helen Hunt version was not that. 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:30.760 Yeah. 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:33.679 I love the original movie right that came out when 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:35.800 I was ten. You know, it's something that I've grown 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:36.160 up with. 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:39.760 Thanks for dating me, Sean. That's good. I watched was 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:43.520 three years out of college. 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:46.319 But going back and watching the original one idiot horribly 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.199 inaccurate as far as science goes. It doesn't really use 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.000 the terminology ride, it doesn't depict things in sort of 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:54.840 this real world interesting as meteorologists, we make fun of 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:55.199 it a lot. 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:55.680 And one of the. 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:58.240 Best scenes that I can give is when they launched 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:01.000 Dorothy into the tornado. In the original movie, they show 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:04.360 a radar image, and most people don't realize that radar 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:09.160 image is completely wrong. It is a clear air radar image. 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:11.880 It's velocity data that they just picked at random from 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:12.840 like a clear air day. 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.079 There's no storms on it. There's definitely no tornado on it. 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:19.000 So, like anybody that studies radar meteorology like really pays 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.360 attention to little details on things like that, that's a 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:24.320 huge problem. Right, So when we set out to make 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:26.640 this movie, we wanted to make sure that there were 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.480 none of those little things that people could nitpick and 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:29.800 be like. 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:30.760 Well, this isn't real. 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:31.160 You know. 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:32.839 It is a Hollywood movie. 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:35.800 Yes, it is meant to be dramatic, and it's a 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.360 thrill ride and it's high octane, and therefore it is 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:41.640 exaggerative in a lot of aspects, but everything that you 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.120 see in the movie is either based on real science, 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:48.560 real theory, or real like equipment, technology, tools, things like 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:50.120 that that we use in the real world. And we 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:52.960 tried to make it as authentic as possible, and I 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.840 think the results are kind of speaking for themselves, right. Everybody, 0:09:55.920 --> 0:10:08.600 meteorologists and non alike, just love the movie. 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.160 There's a podcast I love that Bill Simmons and his 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:16.760 crew do called the Rewatchables, And one of the things 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:18.920 they talk about in the Rewatchables is are these people 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.000 actually is good at their jobs? You know, at the 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.120 end of the day, are they really good? And one 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:26.760 of the things about Twister and Twisters, as I was 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:28.640 talking about it with my wife, I'm like, you know, 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.160 if you keep putting yourself right in front of a 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.240 tornado coming at you, and you keep getting hit by 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:37.640 this tornado, at some point you have to think, am 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.400 I good at my job? That is one of the 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.559 things that I think I told her is very exaggerated. 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:45.800 I said, the goal of a chaser is not to 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:48.520 get in front and sit in a tornado. You actually 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:49.679 want to not do that? 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.280 Right? Yeah, most people, if you're going out of you're 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:54.880 chasing and you want to get good photos. It's really 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:58.160 not that exciting to get a photo inside a tornado. 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:01.400 Like you can't see anything just very you know, right, 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.640 like okay, like wow, like that's a big adrenaline rush. Sure, 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.400 but like picture wise, like no hold me back. I 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:09.000 want to be able to see the structure and the 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:11.480 whole tornado and that sort of thing. And the research 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.360 that we do here at Noah's National Spear Storms Laboratory 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.520 doesn't involve driving into tornadoes. We may get close, but 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.079 we're trying to understand the characteristics that are feeding that storm. 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.520 Right Driving into it and taking observations inside something as 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:26.280 complex as a tornado. 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:27.880 Doesn't really help us a whole lot. 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:30.440 It doesn't tell us the whole picture. So like they're 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:33.920 neat observations, sure, but like that's not really advancing the 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:35.440 science and our understanding of So. 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:39.520 You're telling me you've never shot fireworks into a tornado? 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:41.720 Not yet? But you know how many. 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.560 People I've had say like, hey, was that you? Like 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:46.520 did you give them that idea in the movie. I 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:48.880 may have a habit of playing with fireworks around the 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.679 fourth of July. I give it a year somebody's going 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:54.599 to do it right, somebody's going to describe it. 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:56.600 I do love the fact that they called you guys, 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:02.160 the real guys into technically thighs on this film and 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:04.160 what were the things that you found that you were 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:06.760 telling them in particular. And I love the fact that 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.120 they said, no, I want, we want to come stormchasing 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:09.360 with you. 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:12.600 Yeah, And we tried to make that work during filming, 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:14.960 right because they were out here during tornado season. It 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:17.800 was a little flower of the season last year compared 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.760 to this year. But like, can you imagine trying to 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:24.080 convince Universal Studios to let their multi million dollar talent 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:27.000 in the middle of filming a movie just disappear for 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:28.840 a day or two to go driving, you know, after 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:29.400 a tornado. 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:34.120 Like they were like noolutely voids of London insurance policy. 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:38.560 You need on Glenn Powell to drive right into a tornado, right, right. 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.719 So we when we got involved from from the advising 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:46.080 and technical characteristics of the movie, there's probably not a 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:47.800 part of the movie, to be honest, that I didn't 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.120 touch me. And I had conversations with Ben Snow and 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:53.120 Industrial Light and Magic about what Hail looks like, what 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.719 tornadoes should look like. They used a lot of real 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:59.040 footage from various chasers, including Sean Casey, that got them 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:02.520 some footage. I had multiple conversations with the cast and 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:06.040 with the director about terminology tune Day's line that he 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:08.640 has in there where he's talking about the tornadoes rotating 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:10.760 around each other, and he's like, there's a term for that. 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:12.800 There's a term for that. Oh, who do you are? Effect? 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:14.880 You know, that was something that I gave them that 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:18.200 they absolutely loved because it's so nerdy and cool in 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:20.800 the moment that you know, he got really excited about it, 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:24.000 but they also deeply wanted to learn, like they really 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:25.080 wanted to know what. 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:25.760 All this meant. 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:28.640 I taught Tunday how to do hand analysis like in 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:31.679 the old days, right, So they were soaking in all 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:35.600 this information, helping the playback group pick the radar imagery 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:37.640 that they were going to use. All the radar data 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:39.679 that you see I hand selected so. 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.720 It matches up to the storm you're seeing exactly, right. 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:45.720 Like those are real radar data cases from real events 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:48.560 that in some way mirror what was supposed to be 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.200 happening in the film, so that it's very real and 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:54.240 it's very authentic, and I think all that basically brings 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:57.199 it together to tell a really accurate picture of kind 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:58.520 of what this world and what this. 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:01.319 Environment is like working with you know, especially the two 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:06.360 main leads in Daisy and Glenn were either one of 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:10.959 them in particular really nerdy and into this and really 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:13.240 wanted to hear like all the stories and the science 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:13.920 and all that stuff. 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:18.679 Daisy especially was incredibly inquisitive when it came to this 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:19.280 kind of stuff. 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:20.160 We actually did. 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:22.600 We brought them here to the Weathers Center and Rick 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:26.720 Smith at the National Weather Center here he works for 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:31.480 the OU Office for the National Weather Service. He actually 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.400 gave them like a crash course in severe weather and 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:35.880 storm chasing and meteorology. 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:37.040 It was like a two hour long course. 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.120 Daisy brought a notebook and she was like taking notes 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:43.600 like she was in class, right, Like they so just 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:46.720 love being able to immerse themselves in it. Glenn was 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.320 constantly texting me, Hey, what does this mean? 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:50.360 Like this term? 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:52.800 Like? Am I using this right? This is what it's 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:55.240 supposed to look like in this environment? What's a good 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:59.120 phrase for this? How should I act? Brandon Perea, he 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.160 did an incredible job with his character Boon and really 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:04.800 bringing that kind of love and excitement to the film, 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:08.000 and he was just as enthusiastic about learning like what 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:10.120 meteorology is and how do we do all this kind 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:12.640 of stuff and then being able to take them chasing. 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.360 This year in April, it ended up not being a 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:17.480 big day, Like it looked great a couple of days 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:19.840 out and then by the time you get the engine rolling, 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:21.320 you know, of getting everybody out. 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:22.120 Here, it kind of fell apart. 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:24.400 But we made the best of the day and they 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:25.680 really loved just. 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:27.600 Being all of that kind of come. 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:31.200 Together and really like going out and being in Southwest Kansas, 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:33.080 and I think probably doubting me for a good bit 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:34.680 of the day that there were going to be storms, 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:37.800 and then seeing storms just explode into the evening and 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:39.880 all this structure and lightning and stuff that they hadn't 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:40.360 seen before. 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:41.320 It was an incredible liace. 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:46.680 So post movie release, Daisy and Glenn go to Kansas 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.080 and go storm chasing with you. 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:50.360 Yeah, so we went. 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:53.080 I think it was April fifteenth this year. We were 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:56.080 up in Southwest Kansas. It was a really late nocturnal 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:58.760 event and they had a fighting Keep in mind, this 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:00.720 was like a one day, thing like they were in 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:04.080 the middle of doing other stuff dropped, everything came out 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:06.320 here we went chasing. They had a flight out of 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:09.560 Oklahoma City at seven am the next morning and like 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.240 eleven o'clock we're up by like Dodge City. 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:15.200 And I was like, all right, we can call it. 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.600 Like I think there's you know, we're headed in the 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:19.480 right spot, but like it's getting laid. I know, you 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:21.840 guys got things to do. And Glenn looked at me 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:23.480 from the back of the car and was like, I 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:27.400 will buy property in Southwest Kansas before we call this 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:28.080 chase off. 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.720 And I was like, Ahi, man, let's going, Like let's 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:31.640 let's keep going. 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.120 You know. They were so enthusiastic and just wanted to 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:34.720 soak it all in. 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:35.640 It was tons of fun. 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:36.120 It is. 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.560 It's amazing how much it's all changed. I you know, 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.880 one of the last big stories I covered in Oklahoma 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.000 City before I left was the big tornado outbreak in 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.880 May of ninety nine and storm Chasers. It was, you know, 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:55.120 the biggest tornado day we'd ever had in the history 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.200 of the state, and the big one that came through 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:02.000 more and teen careerpace in Midwest City del City area 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.600 was late in the afternoon and it was the by 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:07.960 far the biggest. That was the F five that came through. 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:11.160 And so the odd thing is I would have never 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:13.400 been sent out on that story. I was a sportscaster. 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:17.399 But there was eighty other tornadoes or one hundred, I 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:19.640 don't know how many were that day, and so by 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:21.480 the end of the day, I was all that was left. 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:23.520 And they're like, you got to go, and I'm like, 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:25.679 what do you mean, I gotta go? And so you know, 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:28.520 I'm chasing this tornado and we didn't have to dry 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:30.840 far because again it's very rare that they would rip 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:33.240 through the middle of Oklahoma City, but this one was 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:37.320 so big, so destructive it did. And I'll never forget 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:40.600 because our technology was Gary England was on the air, 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:44.439 and I've never heard fear in his voice, but that 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.480 one day, it's the only time I've ever heard him say, 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.920 if you cannot get underground, get in your car. You've 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:52.680 got to get out of there. You're not going to live. 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:55.600 I've never heard him say that, and I never heard 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:59.200 him say it since. Because typically you know any new 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:00.800 or you know weather, so we'll say don't try and 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:04.080 out drive it. That's a terrible idea. But the other 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:05.840 part of it that cracked me up is you're talking 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.280 about technology and where we are this. You know, I 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:10.800 couldn't see in the car, So there was a separate 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:14.080 meteorologist that would look at a map and kind of 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:16.240 keep track of where you were and where all the 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:19.600