The Real Oklahoma Tornado Probe That Inspired ‘Twister’

Every now and then, you stumble into a piece of Oklahoma history that sounds completely made up until you realize it absolutely happened. This weekend’s rabbit hole was TOTO.

Not the band. Not the dog. TOTO - the tornado probe.

Yes, Oklahoma scientists once built a giant metal barrel on wheels, named it after Dorothy’s dog, and tried to park it in front of tornadoes.

And somehow that is not the wildest part of the story.

The Real Tornado Gadget Before Hollywood

Back in the early 80s, a group of researchers from the National Severe Storms Laboratory and OU were trying to answer one very simple question. What actually happens inside a tornado?

If that's starting to sound familiar, believe me, I heard it coming way off in the distance too.

Today we have radar covering every square inch of the country, satellites covering every square inch of the earth, and storm chasers everywhere across Tornado Alley... But in at the time, tornado research was still as mystical as palm-reading.

So they built TOTO. The TOtable Tornado Observatory.

It was just a steel drum packed with sensors to measure wind speed, pressure, temperature, and humidity. And the idea was simple... Drive it into the path of a tornado, drop it in the road, and let the tornado take it while recording everything.

Surely the obvious is hitting you right square in the face by now, right?

While it seemed simple enough to deploy, in proved to be a stressful game of tornado chicken on Oklahoma backroads. And just like the plot of the original Twister, the plan never worked until it did.

The Day TOTO Actually Met a Tornado

On April 29, 1985, a tornado touched down near Ardmore, and researchers managed to deploy TOTO directly in its path. The twister picked up the probe, and they were able to collect real data from inside the twister.

That moment made TOTO legendary in the ultra-small circle of storm researchers, but that victory lap was short.

More familiarity... They quickly realized a very big flaw in the design. The weight.

We all know, even the heaviest things get tossed way before the tornado gets to it. And while TOTO weighed around 400 pounds, it kept getting tossed like an empty can. Even worse, deploying it meant stopping a vehicle on rural roads directly in the tornado’s path and physically pushing the thing into place.

Everyone agreed that was not the safest long-term research strategy.

TOTO was retired in the late 80s and replaced by safer mobile radar systems that could study storms from a distance without anyone needing to sprint into a rotating disaster.

Still, the legend stuck.

If You Haven't Connected The Dots Yet...

This real tidbit of history is practically the plot of a certain Oklahoma's best blockbuster, the 90s classic "Twister."

The story of TOTO directly inspired the movie. In the film, TOTO became Dorothy, and the various failures became the scenes.

Of course, Hollywood made it flashier, louder, and significantly more dramatic with a massive push of impossibility, but the core idea came straight from real Oklahoma storm science.

If anything could make that movie even more awesome, it's the real Oklahoma history behind it.

Speaking of, the "Twister" anniversary is on the 15th and 16th up in Wakita. If you'd like to check that out and make a plan to go celebrate something 100 percent universally loved "Oklahoma," check out the details.