Of Camel Groans and Zenon Strobes:

A "Twister…Ride It Out!" Fact Sheet

"Twister…Ride It Out!", features a menacing twister more than five-stories tall – the largest indoor twister ever created. Hundreds of people – from scientists to special effects experts – have worked to make the attraction both realistic and exciting. Here are some of the facts behind the attraction:

The volume of air that rushes through the Twister attraction in one minute can fill more than four full-size airborne blimps.
Twister uses dozens of powerful, specially-designed fans to create its unique vortex, or funnel. Among them are 18 fans with seven-foot-long blades positioned on ground level, mid-level and high-level through the attraction.
Guests experience a twister more than five-stories tall and 12-feet wide that "dances" as much as 30-feet in any direction from its origin point.
The legendary "freight-train" noise of twisters in nature has been re-created by Universal using a variety of sounds, including camel groans and grunts, cougar roars and backward animal screams. Technicians used those sounds to give Universal’s twister an especially aggressive personality.
Twister’s piercing sound system runs at 110 decibels – as loud as a rock concert. The main theater boasts 54 speakers with 42,000 watts, enough equivalent wattage to power five average homes.
Twister uses hundreds of piercing zenon strobe lights that flash as brightly as "real" lightening to help create its storm effects.
150,000 gallons of recycled water are utilized daily at the Twister attraction.
A computerized weather tracking system monitors outside wind velocity, humidity and barometric pressure so that the size and shape of the twister can automatically be adjusted to be realistic and consistent.
The scientists and wind-flow experts who helped Universal Studios Florida create Twister include: Cermak Peterka Petersen, Inc., which has consulted on building projects around the world, including the World Trade Towers in New York City; Dr. Chris Church, of Miami University in Ohio, who operates one of the only vortex laboratories in the world, Reed Carver, a student of Dr. Church’s; and Ned Kahn, a San Francisco artist who specializes in drawing and sculpting tornadoes and vortexes and who also has created vortexes for science centers around the world.