Cambria Sorensen

Christopher Foster
ATOM-1010
6/19/2016
Into the Storm
Into the Storm is about a group of tornadoes that rip through Oklahoma on a High
Schools graduation day. A team of storm chasers are trying to film the eye of the tornado and
miss the first one, but catch a stroke of luck when the next tornado begins to form, though the
citizens of Oklahoma do not feel so lucky. I feel that Into the Storm did a good job depicting
what it would be like to experience a tornado. I felt it was fairly accurate when all of the High
School students were in the school and had to shield themselves from the tornado. I have never
experienced a tornado myself, but based on what I have found out, the type of destruction that
these tornadoes left is accurate.
TV shows and movies are known to have tornadoes happen in Oklahoma. This leads the
audience to believe that tornadoes most frequently occur in Oklahoma but they really are more
common in Texas. Though tornados do happen in Oklahoma, this film may be misleading in that
way. (Tornado)
Oklahoma is in the middle of Tornado Alley. Tornado Alley is named as such because it
experiences frequent tornado occurrences each year. South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Eastern
Colorado, Norther Texas and Nebraska are all a part of Tornado Alley. The Great Plains are more
susceptible to tornadoes because is it flat and it is the perfect meeting spot for cold dry air from
Canada to meet warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. (Tornado)

The average number of tornadoes that Oklahoma has in one year since 1950 is 55.8, the
most ever being 145 in 1999. In recent years, Oklahoma has been experiencing weather on both
ends of the spectrum. In 2014 Oklahoma only had 16 tornadoes, the lowest tornado year since
1950. 2015 made up for the lack of tornadoes that 2014 had and they had one of the highest
tornado years since 1950. They experienced 111 tornadoes in one year, that is the fourth highest
tornado year since the year 1950! (National)
Tornadoes are formed when cold air and warm air combine. Tornados are not the
deadliest natural disaster there is, earthquakes account for the five top deadliest natural disasters
in history. (National) For every one thousand tornadoes that happen in the United states, only one
hundred people die. Even though tornadoes are not the deadliest of natural disasters, there have
been a few that left massive death and destruction in its path. I will briefly go over the worst and
deadliest tornado in United States history.
The Tri-State tornado that occurred on March eighteenth 1925 was the deadliest tornado
the United States has ever seen. It was the cause of almost 700 deaths, thats seven times more
deaths than the nations average per year. It traveled 151 to 235 miles and over three states,
Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. The Tri-State tornado was rated as an F5 tornado on the Fujita
scale, the maximum damage rating. It caused wide spread thunderstorms, hail as well as straightline wind. There were several other tornados that happened on the same day in Tennessee,
Kentucky, Indiana, Alabama, and Kansas. This is similar to what Into the Storm was reenacting
when there was one tornado after another. In total, there were over twelve tornadoes, making
March 18th the deadliest tornado day and 1925 the deadliest tornado year. (Tri-State)

We have been fortunate enough to have avoided a tornado reaching such size and
destruction in recent years. It has also been recorded that in recent years the number of tornados
has been decreasing. There could be a few different things causing such a decrease. One thing
could be the fact that there is less space for tornados to form because there are more buildings
and less open space then there was ninety years ago.

Works cited
Tri-State Tornado Facts and Information." Tri-State Tornado Facts, History and Information.
N.p., n.d. Web. 18 June 2016.

Tornado Climatology." Tornado Climatology. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2016.

"Top 10 Deadliest Natural Disasters in History." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, n.d. Web. 19
June 2016.

"National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office." Monthly/Annual Statistics for Tornadoes in
Oklahoma (1950-Present). N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2016.