Groundhog Day is a strange “holiday,” when the hopes of a nation rest on the nervous behavior of an oversized rodent. If the sun shines on Punxsutawney Phil, he’ll see his shadow and retreat to his den, heralding six more weeks of winter. If it’s a cloudy day that produces no shadow, he’ll stay calm and declare an early spring.
Whether you believe in this meteorological myth, one way to get your mind off the (seemingly) everlasting bleakness of winter is to watch a show or movie highlighting extreme weather. Why? Well, you’ll see that things can always be worse — disaster films act as a sort of pressure release, as worst-case scenarios play out while you’re safe and sound. Basically, in these movies, the groundhog always sees his shadow.
Give meteorology the respect it deserves by enjoying these movies and shows featuring extreme weather events.
This docuseries gets up close to four real-life natural disasters: tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Film crews tag along with daring individuals who aren’t afraid to chase a twister or stand on the edge of a crater — they’ve experienced the violent and unpredictable nature of the planet firsthand. Plus, first responders tell stories about how they’ve saved lives amid harrowing circumstances.
A small amount of snow is charming, a large amount is treacherous, but this Argentinian series introduces a whole new threat — toxic snow. A group of friends gathers for a game of poker on a hot summer night in Buenos Aires and are startled when the power goes out. Outside, it’s inexplicably snowing. When a driver with his window down crashes into a parked car, they realize he’s dead: The snow kills anyone it touches, and those left alive will have to find a way to survive.
A rainy morning turns into a fight for survival in this very wet Korean sci-fi disaster film. Gu An-na (Kim Da-mi) wakes up to a rising flood taking over her apartment building: Tsunamis caused by an asteroid threaten to wipe out humanity. Desperate to keep her son safe, An-na pushes through the residents, looters, and debris to the roof of her high-rise building. When Son Hee-jo (Park Hae-soo), a security agent sent by her employer, comes to help her, she thinks she and her son are saved. But her employers have their own agenda, and her nightmare is just beginning.
This Polish series takes place in 1997, focusing on the true events that led to the “Millennium Flood,” a natural disaster in Wrocław, Poland. In the series, a fictional hydrologist, Jaśmina Tremer (Agnieszka Żulewska), is brought in too late to build a predictive model that will assess the potential damage of rising water levels after unprecedented rainfall. The series highlights the government’s attempts to mitigate the damage, as well as the negligence that made it one of the deadliest natural disasters in Poland’s history.
You’ll reconsider saying a hot day is “killer” after watching this Belgian series, in which the sun is actually out to kill everyone. An international red-eye flight is boarding when a crazed man with a gun appears, demanding the plane take off immediately to save all their lives — he’s running from the looming daylight, because solar rays are killing anyone who’s exposed. By heading west, the plane can stay ahead of the dawn, but it can’t stay in the air forever. Tensions rise as the passengers devise a plan to survive this looming disaster.
In this gritty Danish young adult series, you don’t get the sniffles from getting caught in a storm — you die. A rain-borne virus has killed a large portion of Scandinavia's population. Dr. Frederik Andersen (Lars Simonsen) takes his wife and children, Simone (Alba August) and Rasmus (Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen), to a bunker built by his company. As soon as they arrive, Frederik leaves, insisting he’s the only one who knows how to prevent more people from dying. Frederik never comes back, and his wife dies while protecting the children from an intruder. After six years, Simone and Rasmus have no choice but to emerge from their hideaway to face the dystopian world outside.
The Andes are the world’s longest mountain range, which makes flying over them challenging, especially given unpredictable weather conditions at such high altitudes. This movie, based on the true story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, depicts the unfortunate mistakes and low visibility that led to the plane’s crash in the mountains in 1972. The passengers included 19 members of a Uruguayan rugby team. Those who survived the crash had to endure frigid temperatures, waning food sources, and serious injuries, but their story of perseverance is remarkable.
When a storm hits, we take shelter, but during a storm in the middle of the ocean, there’s no such refuge. In another film based on a true story, 16-year-old Australian Jessica Watson (Teagan Croft) dreams of being the youngest person to circumnavigate the earth in a sailboat. Alone. Supported by her family and coach, she takes off on what will be a 210-day trip, but it’s not all, well, smooth sailing. Jessica encounters a few storms, including one in which three separate storms merge into a single superstorm. Her tale is truly both admirable and thrilling to watch.
