It was his own encounter with one of the most incredible twisters in recent American history that sucked in TikTok storm-chaser Edgar O’Neal. In 2013, the U.S. state of Oklahoma was struck by the widest tornado ever recorded to the south of the city of El Reno, measuring at a staggering 2.6 miles wide. Eight people were killed, including three storm researchers—the first recorded deaths of chasers on the road. The U.S. National Weather Service called it “the most dangerous tornado in storm observing history.” That it missed more densely populated areas of the state, and as such the death toll was limited, is enough to inspire faith in the greatest of non-believers.
O’Neal, then working as a state social worker, had just moved to Oklahoma. “Me and my family had to run from [the El Reno tornado],” he tells GQ over Zoom. “I didn’t know much of anything about how to read radar, or anything, and it scared the heck out of me.” Some time later, he would face his newfound fear head-on. “I went on a ridealong with someone my wife knew was a storm-chaser. The first time, I was like, Oh, this is what I want to do eventually.”
Twister thundered into the box office back in 1996, becoming the surprise second-highest grossing film of the year behind world capital destruct-o-thon Independence Day. That it so convincingly tore the roof off poses the question of why it has taken 28 years for a sequel to appear, ready to swallow up Oklahoma anew in its swirling, cow-filled vortex. But now Twisters has arrived. With it will no doubt come renewed interest in a pursuit that some find cool, and others insane: storm-chasing, with all of its death-defying mythos.
For some it’s a job, others it’s a hobby, but it’s exactly what it sounds like: the pursuit of freak weather events, like tornadoes and hurricanes, for the collection of scientific data, adrenaline-pumping thrills, and increasingly in the present moment, content for live-streamed entertainment.
Storm-chasers have carved out a special place for themselves on TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media platforms, turning a niche pursuit into a viable full-time career for the most committed chasers. Such is how O’Neal stormed into the game. After that initial ride-along, he continued his storm-chasing journey with “chase-cations,” in which amateur chasers hit tornado hotspots to witness the beasts firsthand. Eventually, the internet enabled him to take on chasing full-time. “I was one of the first storm chasers on TikTok, and I started [on] that platform early on,” he says.
Last year, he reached out to meteorologist and storm-chaser Reed Timmer and joined his storm-chasing group Team Dominator. (Timmer took Twisters writer Mark L. Smith out on the road while Smith was writing the script, and “most people assume” Glen Powell’s character is based on Timmer, per O’Neal.) “I have seen over 62 tornadoes this year,” O’Neal says. He has been inside seven of them, in an armor-clad truck known as a Tornado Intercept Vehicle, to gather vital meteorological data straight from the source, such as we see in Twisters.
But what drives a person to take on weather at its most extreme? “I’m an adrenaline junkie. I had this perceived idea of what a tornado was like, and it was really fun to go see one,” O’Neal says. “But honestly, the thing that really hooked me about it is it’s really complex. I’m one of those people that are kind of all-or-nothing about something, so I love topics I can dive into.” Then, of course, there’s the peculiar majesty of witnessing such immense, inexplicable destruction first-hand. “Once you start seeing a tornado up close in person… [it’s] this just magnificent thing from Mother Nature, that is powerful, destructive, confusing; it’s almost like your eyes, when you first see one up close, it’s like, ‘I’m not really looking at this.’”
Storm-chasers, O’Neal tells me, are far from all the same. There are different styles of storm-chasing; some, like Team Dominator, strive to get as “close as humanly possible” to tornadoes, whereas others hang back and collect data from afar. For the guys and gals who get up close and personal, nevertheless, adrenaline tends to play a big part. “I had adrenaline fatigue at the end of the year. My body just didn’t have any left. You drive into that many tornadoes, and it definitely really starts draining your adrenaline glands,” O’Neal says. “The last five or six tornadoes I saw this year, there was no excitement, or anything… I mean, I was happy because it’s so hard to see a tornado. But that adrenaline rush wasn’t there anymore.”
Perhaps it’s similar for journalists in war zones, I suggest. “The irony of that is whenever the war in Ukraine started, I took a hard consideration to go there and do photojournalism,” he says. “Me and Reed have talked about that before. It’s the same type of danger, excitement, where you’re covering this big event… These things that, in my opinion, need to be covered. And I did think about it.”
An average chase day will usually consist of a little breakfast, technical prep, working out the “best target area” — ie. where they think supercell formations will happen, which could possibly cause tornadoes — and then a lot of driving before the main encounter. O’Neal has a number of duties in the TIV, which they aptly call the Dominator, including to produce the team’s live stream. Across Facebook and YouTube, he guesses that they’re usually watched by 70 to 80,000 people concurrently.
The rest of the day, as O’Neal describes it, bears more resemblance than one might expect to what we see in Twisters — surprising fidelity for a big-budget blockbuster, where spectacle tends to be the main consideration over accuracy. Once on location, they switch from studying computer models to looking at real surface data, satellite and radar imagery to hunt down the likeliest place for tornado tussling. “Sometimes there’s multiple storms that pop up, and you gotta make that educated decision on which storm to get on,” he says, as just being in a spot where there’s an active tornado warning doesn’t guarantee that you’ll actually see one. “And from then on, the chase is on.”
In one of the clips O’Neal has shared on his social media channels, a twister tears through a wind farm in Iowa, shredding the turbines like they’re made of aluminum foil. “That’s probably the best footage I’ve ever shot, just because it’s rare,” he says. “I’ve seen plenty of tornadoes go by windmills that never get destroyed. That was a very powerful tornado.” O’Neal later encountered the leveled remains of a large part of the Iowan town of Greenfield, also struck by the monstrous twister; according to local reports, at least 153 homes were destroyed, four people were killed, and 35 others were injured. “That’s when that reality sets in as a storm-chaser, that oh, these things are also very damaging and can be scary,” he says.
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There are ways of making the job safer. Being in the Dominator helps, for one, but he also cautions against storm-chasing solo. On especially popular chases, other vehicles can be just as dangerous as the weather. “Especially in May, when everyone takes their chase-cations. There are hundreds of cars—not an exaggeration—just lined up on these old county dirt roads,” he says. “You’ve got people swerving. They see a tornado, they stop in the middle of the road. So being very aware, and knowing how to try to stay away from those situations [can make it safer].”
Twisters is hitting at the right time, as chase-cations are only becoming more popular, O’Neal says. What’s driving the increased interest? “I think access. Now you have hundreds of people live streaming, [so] everyone has access to see what it’s like,” he continues. On a recent trip to North Dakota, for example, fans of the storm-chasing streamers lined the road with signs. “They figured out where we’re going to be driving based on our live streams, and they’re cheering when we pull into parking lots,” he says. “There’s definitely a weird celebrity-type status you get from storm-chasing, especially if you’re one of the bigger ones on social media.”
Now, it’s just about waiting to see how Twisters further spins up the storm-chasing craze — and, for O’Neal, seeing if he can spot himself in the movie, having shot a few scenes as a background actor. “They don’t give you the full script, obviously. But I saw enough scenes where I was like, ‘I get the gist of what’s happening, here,’” he says. “I mean, I’m recently new to Team Dominator, so I’m not gonna act like I’ve been on it for 15 or 20 years, but it’s definitely very similar.”
Having seen the movie the night before, I say, that’s certainly how it seems. “That makes me happy though,” he continues. “When someone makes a movie about your profession, your hope is always just, Okay. As long as you don’t make us look like a bunch of idiots.”