Cinema catastrophes become reality: “Impossible in the Netherlands”

Anyone who watched the 2004 movies The Day After or 2014’s Into the Storm upon their release might not have imagined that such a thing would one day become a reality. Still, last weekend’s series of tornadoes are pretty close.

“Due to climate change, we could see much more extreme conditions,” meteorologist Reinier van den Berg told EditieNL. “Like warmer weather, eddies and floods.” We also have examples of this in the Netherlands. “We can see the katabatic winds in Leersum more often because it’s part of the warmer climate. Or the floods in Limburg, Belgium and Germany.”

Puzzle pieces

But the fact that the movies later become reality is mostly a coincidence. “Every year, thousands of films are made. There is always a good one,” explains film expert Rudi de Boer. Contagion is a reality which also seems to be becoming a reality recently. “It was a virus from China. Now we are seeing this story again.” According to De Boer, there are few films with possible predictive value in and around the Netherlands. “Hollywood always exaggerates.”

But such a disaster scenario is less likely to materialize in the Netherlands anyway. “It’s practically impossible,” says meteorologist Van den Berg. “The circumstances are very exceptional. Then all kinds of puzzle pieces have to fall into place. These conditions such as heat, humidity and a lot of wind are much rarer in our parts of Europe.”