Hunt For the SuperTwister

There is a bitter irony in the televising of Nova's Hunt For the SuperTwister the day after multiple tornadoes in Oklahoma killed 6 people, injured 60 and left thousands without power. But, the goal of the central characters in the program is to provide more warning for tornadoes, especially the deadly supertwisters, the F4 and F5 tornadoes with winds over 200 mph that cause the most deaths and damage.

The program implies that meteorologists are on the verge of a breakthrough that may solve the puzzle of how the killer storms form and where they are likely to strike. We follow Josh Wurman, of the Center for Severe Weather Research, and Howard Bluestein, of the University of Oklahoma, as they chase storms through tornado alley. Armed with mobile Doppler radar trucks and satellite links, they gather front line data to crack the complex code of tornado formation.

Much of their data goes to Lou Wicker, of the National Severe Storms laboratory, who creates computer models in association with the National Center for Supercomputing applications. His models are the first to show the intricate sequence of steps in forming a twister and may be the element that enables meteorologists to provide the accuracy and additional warning time needed to prevent many deaths.

The program is a straight forward informational doc with narration and interviews with experts and victims. There are many fantastic images of tornadoes and the damage they cause.