Filmed in Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada, it is based loosely on the 1984 young-adult novel of the same title by Ivy Ruckman, itself a semi-fictionalized account of an outbreak of seven tornadoes that struck Grand Island, Nebraska on June 3, 1980, which killed five people and injured 134 others; the film adaptation, however, is set in the fictional Nebraska town of Blainsworth, which serves as a stand-in for Grand Island.

At 1:16 p.m., in the rural farmland in Dannebrog, Nebraska in the Fall of 1996, Bob Iverson, a storm chaser with the Kansas State Tornado Center relaying information to the National Weather Service on a chase assignment, is driving down a country road to track a supercell thunderstorm.

While observing the storm, Bob spots a tornado touching down almost a mile south of his location; he warns a family living nearby, right as their daughter Sarah, arrives home from school, about the oncoming twister, which sends them running into their root cellar before it destroys their farm.

Later, Laura's sister, Dan's aunt Jenny, calls to inform her that they were assigned to fill-in shifts as waitresses at the Salty Dawg, a diner where they work.

A tornado then approaches Blainsworth's Capital Heights neighborhood, with the noises emitting from the drains notifying Dan and Arthur of its pending arrival; they and Ryan take cover in the basement bathroom's shower tub as the twister obliterates the Hatch residence.

Dan and Stacey then go save Belle, at her farm; the two teenagers find her underneath wooden boards blown onto her from off of the damaged barn near her house (which itself survived intact).

As Bob pulls his truck into the driveway of the destroyed house, helping passengers Jenny and Laura along with him searching for Jack, Dan and Ryan, the Jeep also drives up and the family is reunited.