Before 'Wicked', 'The Wizard Of Oz' Big Connections To Weather

T​he recent theatrical release of "Wicked" sets up the story of how "The Wizard of Oz," its tornado, the Wicked Witch of the West and Dorothy Gale's trip to see the wizard came about. While we wait until Part Two's release in 2025, we thought it would be worth a look at the history of "The Wizard of Oz" tornado and some other weather-y connections in "The Wizard of Oz".

T​his will be a spoiler-free zone for "Wicked" fans unless you haven't yet seen "The Wizard of Oz." If you haven't seen the original, we might have to send the flying monkeys to get you, my pretty.

L​et's get on the yellow brick road...

Kansas Tornado Drew On Very Little Inspiration

Long before the age of social media and the abundance of cameras in everyone’s pocket, very few people had seen, let alone recorded, tornadoes through the 1930s. Special effects artists at the time only had a few photographs to draw ideas from when building the tornado, according to the Oz Museum. This means they likely didn’t have any idea how tornadoes move and relatively little information about how they appeared.

(Issued In 1948: The First Tornado Warning)

That said, the tornado still holds up 80 years later. It is largely a realistic cone or rope-shaped tornado and its motion is somewhat accurate. Tornadoes do often turn left or right, although the motion of the movie tornado may be slightly more erratic than reality due to its looping multiple times. A realistic tornado that close to the home of Dorothy would have likely had a visible mesocyclone attached, and it certainly would not have had family members (and Almira Gulch) floating by the window at such slow speeds.

A Tornado Before CGI

Making a tornado that moves and causes damage isn’t easy, especially in the 1930s. It took a couple of tries and several months to get it right.

The man behind that tornado was A. Arnold “Buddy” Gillespie. He served as the head of special effects for MGM on more than 180 feature films.

Buddy originally tried using a 35-foot-tall rubber cone, but it was too stiff. Then he tried a water vortex that could simulate the motion of a tornado better.

Finally, Buddy made the camera-ready twister out of a 35-foot muslin sock akin to those you would see measuring wind speeds at an airport, according to the Oz Museum and Oz Historian John Fricke. He attached the top of the sock to a gantry crane and the bottom to a moving car traveling on an “S” track. The tornado “twisted” with a motor inside. Fuller’s earth, wind and leaves were thrown at the tornado in a projected background and at the actors in the foreground for additional realism.

(More Movie Magic: From 'Twister' To 'Twisters': How Tornado Forecasting, Technology Has Changed Since 1996)

“It’s A Twister, It’s A Twister”

In the original movie, the weather event that sets off Dorothy’s skip down the yellow brick road was called several different names. It is called a cyclone and a twister in the movie by various characters.

So which one is right? They both are. Cyclones are the broad term for any low pressure system from tornadoes to hurricanes. Twisters are the familiar term for tornadoes. And if you’re courageous enough, tornadoes are also called devils or willy-willys around the world.

Dorothy Gale Wasn’t Just A Character

While the history on the inspiration behind the movie character is a bit muddy, the inspiration likely comes from two different people. The first was a young Dorothy Louise Gage, niece of "The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz" author L. Frank Baum. This Dorothy died at just five months old due to “congestion of the brain.” The name Dorothy “Gale” was given by Baum to honor young Gage, possibly changing out the one-letter difference using Gage’s middle name Louise. Gage’s gravestone was also replaced by one of the munchkins nearly 100 years after her death.

Another possible inspiration for Dorothy Gale’s namesake came from a real world tornado outbreak. The outbreak of question produced two tornadoes in Irving, Kansas, in May of 1879. One of the victims of the tornadoes was named Dorothy Gale.

The Wizard And His Stratospheric Connection

When Dorothy asks for her trip home to Kansas, the Wizard proclaims that he was a balloonist with “stratospheric skill” for a circus fair in Kansas before his balloon was blown off course. He ended up landing in Oz, where he became the wizard. In the end, the wizard shows his lack of skill, blasting off in his balloon without Dorothy or runaway Toto. "I can't come back. I don't know how it works," says the Wizard. Nobody knows if his “unexplainable journey into the outer stratosphere” and out of Oz was successful, at least in the movie adaptations of Baum’s works.

Today, balloon pilots and pilots of larger aircraft alike use weather to their advantage. Balloon pilots now have computer models to chart their path from one location to another, or back to where they lifted off from. Different levels of the atmosphere can contain different wind directions and speeds, which allow balloons to take turns if they change their height. Many balloons do not reach the stratosphere due to the lack of oxygen, but in recent decades, a few very high-flying balloons have taken extreme thrill seekers into near-space. It is more difficult to land in Oz these days.

L​ooking Forward To Part Two of "Wicked"

While we don't consider the following a spoiler since weather takes such a large role in "The Wizard of Oz," we do advise that if you want to remain 100% free of any "Wicked" knowledge, it's time to leave. Please don't melt us!

T​here is one fleeting mention of weather control in Part One of "Wicked" from one of the major characters, but it has very little impact on the movie. The specialty will surely have major impacts in Part Two as we're still expecting the big entrance of weather's biggest character in the land of Oz – the tornado.

We want to thank Robert Welch, grandson of A. Arnold "Buddy" Gillespie, the head of special effects for "The Wizard of Oz", and John Fricke, OZ Historian for the Oz Museum, for their significant contributions.

Jonathan Belles has been a graphics meteorologist and writer for weather.com for 8 years and also assists in the production of videos for The Weather Channel en español. His favorite weather is tropical weather, but also enjoys covering high-impact weather and news stories and winter storms. He's a two-time graduate of Florida State University and a proud graduate of St. Petersburg College.