TOtable Tornado Observatory

The TOtable Tornado Observatory (nicknamed "TOTO") is a large, instrumented barrel-shaped device invented in 1979 by engineers Dr. Al Bedard and Carl Ramzy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL), and Dr. Howard Bluestein, meteorologist at the University of Oklahoma (OU).

To deploy TOTO, which weighed from 250 to 350 lbs (110–160 kg), two people could unstrap its mooring cables and roll it out of the back of a customized pickup truck in about thirty seconds, using metal wheel ramps.

The TOTO crew had to quickly find a relatively level and firm surface, off the road, away from wind obstructions and potential debris generators (such as buildings and trees).

The closest deployment to a tornado was on April 29, 1985, near Ardmore, Oklahoma, by Steve Smith and Lou Wicker of the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL).

[2] TOTO was the inspiration for an instrument package named "Dorothy" in the 1996 Warner Bros./Universal film, Twister, and for a research project in the TV movie Tornado!.

TOTO. An instrumented metal drum which scientists attempted to place in the path of tornadoes during the 1980s.