Sharknado Debunked By Weather Experts. Wait, What?
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Even if you had no idea that it was a Syfy Original Movie, the film Sharknado doesn’t exactly have a title that could easily get mixed up with a Ken Burns documentary. It doesn’t take a very scientific mind to realize that a film about tornadoes that fling human-killing sharks down on California treats facts like Ike Turner treated women, but a little confirmation is never looked down upon.
Who better to deny a ridiculously conceived weather anomaly than AccuWeather.com, who debunks three of the film’s more inane claims. This is exactly what we needed! Oddly enough, none of the myths concern Ian Ziering being able to lead a movie…
Massachusetts Marine Fisheries’ Shark Specialist Greg Skomal says there is no way a tornado can literally scoop sharks up out of the water and drop them on land. “The concept that sharks cannot only survive being swept up in a tornado but also attack humans is absurd,” he says. One had to wonder how the sharks lived so long up in the waterless tornadoes anyway, much less having enough energy to go after its usual meals, much less humans.
Any kind of extremely strong storm like the one in Sharknado just isn’t going to happen over Southern California. AccuWeather Meteorologist Kristina Baker says, “Hurricanes are extremely rare in South California because of the cool weather off the shore.” There’s a reason why the Southeastern U.S. is usually the only area of the country attacked by such vicious storms. In fact, the only two times tropical storms affected the area were in 1858 and 1939. To be clear, both of those rained down giant man-eating squids, but no sharks.
Finally, the film’s rather goofy way of presenting itself as a cautionary tale against global warming also didn’t add up. The story says that climate change can’t conclusively be proven responsible for most events, and that “climate change would have to continue exponentially for hundreds of years to create the conditions described in the film.” Hopefully Syfy will have stopped making movies by then.
But just because the film wasn’t realistic doesn’t make it irrelevant, as Twitter and 1.4 million viewers have shown. But you guys know as well as I do that no forms of pop culture really matter until they’re recreated using Legos. Luckily, Iain Heath made it so.
One Buzzfeed user created a series of potential sequel posters, whose cast members are the best part. Check out a few below.
Finally, one of the best podcasts out there, How Did This Get Made?, interrupted their usual wait between episodes to bring fans their comedic criticism of Sharknado. Hosts Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas are joined by Earwolf and Comedy Bang Bang founder Scott Aukerman. Take a listen below, or just download the podcast.
