Are tornadoes like the tornadoes in twister?

Answer 1

Not really. Twister got some things right and some things wrong.

For one thing, based on the damage observed and the stated intensities, the tornadoes in Twister were generally larger and more intense than the average tornado. None of the tornadoes appeared to have been of less than F2 intensity, putting them in the strongest 10% of recorded tornadoes. Conversely, the final chase scene actually underplays the destructive potential of an F5 tornado. The manner in which some of the tornadoes threw large objects is also rather unlikely. That the tornadoes seemed to chase the storm chasers is also somewhat unrealistic. While such things have happened occasionally, most tornadoes stay on a relatively straight path. There are other minutiae that could be discussed, but that would make this answer rather long.

In the movie's favor, tornadoes similar in appearance to those that appeared in Twister have occurred. This is related to the fact that, in designing the tornadoes for the movie, the filmmakers studied footage of real tornadoes. The Fujita scale is a real thing that is used to rate tornadoes.