History YMMV / TheDayAfterTomorrow

** Tornadoes touched down briefly in Southern California in January 2010.

** The homeless man too, along with his CanineCompanion.
** Terry Rapson can count too.

* OlderThanTheyThink: A Hollywood film from 19'''33'''(!!) called ''Deluge'' had a similar gimmick about rapid worldwide climate shifts unleashing global catastrophes, and the film's major scene also features New York City being flooded by the titular "deluge", but just after getting destroyed by a SpecialEffectsFailure-quality earthquake -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AbXQcwHyt4 see it here]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEZ0SeZlZpg A comparison video]] of the flooding scenes from ''Deluge'' and ''The Day After Tomorrow'' was even put up.
* SpecialEffectsFailure: The only visual downside in the movie is the CGI wolves which, for the most part, lack detail/complexity in their rendering. But there are still some moments where the wolves look great, such as the shots of them walking/running through the stairs.

* WhatAnIdiot: The police officer who rallied the survivors in the library put all of his faith in the ability of a bunch of tired, exhausted civillians to outpace a horrific, apocalyptic snowstorm. Then harshly rebuked Sam, whose father is literally certified to talk about these kind of things, who was pleading with him to not go through with his plan. To the shock of no one, everyone in their group dies of exposure only a few hours later.

* TastesLikeDiabetes: The rescue of the LittlestCancerPatient.
* {{Tearjerker}}: Frank's HeroicSacrifice, literally taking the fall so that his friends survive to reach Sam in New York.

** There was quite a bit of only-half-joking GallowsHumor related to the film in Texas and neighboring states in February of 2021 when a bizarre temporary shift in air currents disturbingly similar to the one in the movie wrought havoc in the region. For comparison, in Central Texas average daily high temperatures of roughly 60F(15C) and lows around 43F(6C) are the rule, and more than a day or two with daily low temperatures below 32F (0C) is unheard of. In this event, temperatures plunged to around 5F(-20C) and remained below 20F(-6C) for nearly a week, and an area where fraction-of-an-inch dustings of snow are a cause for excitement saw persistent coverage measured in feet. Society effectively experienced a brief local apocalypse as infrastructure completely unprepared for the conditions broke down- natural gas power plants shut down one by one as fuel pipes froze and burst and smaller coal plants quickly exhausted reserves as rail and road transport ground to halt, leaving the state limping by on the combination of more reliable solar, wind, and nuclear plants, and a handful of large coal plants with deeper reserves. As a final touch, more that a few people with the means did in fact flee to Mexico as in the film, most infamously Senator Ted Cruz, noted opponent of refugee immigration and infrastructure spending.

* CriticalResearchFailure: There's a reason the main page quote is what it is. This movie's depiction of climatology is accurate in only one technical point; [[DamnedByFaintPraise the planet Earth actually does have a climate.]]

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Many people over the course of the film. Most notably the Vice President, who dismisses Jack's advice they begin evacuating people, '''after''' he witnessed Los Angeles get demolished by tornadoes.
** The main characters thinking that the best place to take shelter from the storm was the library, saying that it's high up. But this comes after they were complaining about them taking the stairs to the apartment owned by the main characters' dad. ''Then'' when we see the library it doesn't look like it's very tall and it's surrounded by many skyscrapers that are far taller than it. Any of the skyscrapers or the apartment would've provided better protection from the storm than the small library.
** The thousands of New Yorkers traversing the flooded streets instead of simply getting indoors. Most egregiously, a group of men pay a bus driver to let them aboard even with traffic submerged in waist-high water. It does not end well for most of them when the tsunami hits...
** Also the French woman that is more concerned about getting her passport than the fact that the streets are flooding and a huge wave is approaching.
*** Laura for going to get said passport.
** And everyone in the library other than Sam, Laura, Brian and J.D., who decide to go out in ''sub zero temperature'' to look for help. Unsurprisingly they're all frozen to death by the time Jack comes across their bodies. Made even worse in that they essentially cause the deaths of every child that was in the library along with their parents that left the library.
*** If you can make it out to the street or the ship, you can make it to other nearby buildings for supplies, helpful survivors, or a better spot to stay warm.

** There was quite a bit of only-half-joking GallowsHumor related to the film in Texas and neighboring states in February of 2021 when a bizarre temporary shift in air currents disturbingly similar to the one in the movie wrought havoc in the region. For comparison, in Central Texas average daily high temperatures of roughly 60*F(15*C) and lows around 43*F(6*C) are the rule, and more than a day or two with daily low temperatures below 32*F (0*C) is unheard of. In this event, temperatures plunged to around 5*F(-20*C) and remained below 20*F(-6*C) for nearly a week, and an area where fraction-of-an-inch dustings of snow are a cause for excitement saw persistent coverage measured in feet. Society effectively experienced a brief local apocalypse as infrastructure completely unprepared for the conditions broke down- natural gas power plants shut down one by one as fuel pipes froze and burst and smaller coal plants quickly exhausted reserves as rail and road transport ground to halt, leaving the state limping by on the combination of more reliable solar, wind, and nuclear plants, and a handful of large coal plants with deeper reserves. As a final touch, more that a few people with the means did in fact flee to Mexico as in the film, most infamously Senator Ted Cruz, noted opponent of refugee immigration and infrastructure spending.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:

** Depends which end of the political spectrum you're on, but the Vice President's comment about meeting with the head of FEMA as the film was released a year before Hurricane Katrina, a historical hurricane that needs no explaining its damage.
* HarsherInHindsight:

* EsotericHappyEnding: The astronaut at the end (after the disaster has destroyed civilization in the northern hemisphere and claimed countless lives) who happily declares that he's never seen the sky so clean. Apparently this is supposed to be the ending's "uplifting" note. ''Hoo'', boy...!

** Depends which end of the political spectrum you're on, but the Vice President's comment about meeting with the head of FEMA as the film was released a year before Hurricane Katrina.

*** Even more uncomfortably-so, now that 2014-2015 is seeing Boston buried even worse that Buffalo got it last winter.

** Many people over the course of the film. Most notably the Vice President, who dismisses Jack's advice they begin evacuating people, '''after''' he witnessed Los Angeles get destroyed by tornadoes.

** The thousands of New Yorkers traversing the flooded streets instead of simply getting indoors. Most egregiously, a group of men pay a bus driver to let them aboard even with traffic submerged in waist-high water. It does not end well for most of them when the wave hits...

* BellisariosMaxim: Emmerich has stated that the film was never intended to be scientifically accurate - the credits claim it was based on the book ''The Coming Global Superstorm,'' by [[Radio/CoastToCoastAM Art Bell]] and [[TheGreys Whitney Striber]].

* CriticalResearchFailure: There's a reason the main page quote is what it is. This movie's depiction of climatology is accurate in only one technical point; the planet Earth actually does have a climate.

*** It does show in the ending that the helicopters were picking up more survivors on the rooftops of New York after they picked up the main characters so at least the main characters weren't the only survivors of the disaster in New York so they aren't totally dismissing the possibility that there are other possible survivors.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBn1Tl5TgPs&list=UUlfEht64_NrzHf8Y0slKEjw&feature=c4-overview As this video demonstrates]], most of the Northern Hemisphere has become an Arctic wasteland, all surviving Americans have gone to Mexico, which won't be able to hold them all, leading to either an American uprising or Martial Law. Canada, Europe, and Russia are all stated or shown to have suffered a similar fate to the one depicted in the US, only worse (because they're further north). Europe is implied to have got hit particularly hard, as south for them would be the Mediterranean, so they were basically trapped. India and China aren't really mentioned but India at least (and parts of China) are probably far south enough the have escaped turning into an ice cube. So that's goodbye Europe (740 million), Russia (130 million), and Canada and most of the USA (call it 250 million?), plus an unknown amount of people in Asia and the victims of all the typhoons and tsunami around the world. It's not (quite) the end of the world, but you're looking at a death toll of at least a billion, possibly closer to 2 billion, with everything north of about 35' latitude now about as hospitable as the North Pole on a bad day.

** This is especially troubling to a number of environmentalists as even serious discussions of climate change often go off the deep end in descriptions (claims of the poles melting overnight, our children never seeing snow) when the reality is that it will consist of single-digit changes in global average temperature with increased risk of extreme weather (such as the 2019 polar vortex in North America and the preceding years' of extreme heat in America, along with low-lying island being severely threatened by rising sea levels)... but nowhere even remotely near as extreme of Fridge Logical depictions in the film.

** While real-life climatologists were glad to see the subject of climate change and global warming getting attention from Hollywood, they've expressed concern that the film's depiction of climate change might desensitize audiences to the reality of the issue.

** Especially since [[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52053656 the opposite started happening in response to America's amount of COVID-19 cases]]

** Even if there are millions of survivors they wouldn't survive for very long in arctic conditions.And in reality there simply aren't enough rescue choppers to take all of them to warmer places no matter what the movie tries to imply at the end.

* {{Anvilicious}}: We don't know if you noticed, but '''''GLOBAL WARMING IS BAD'''''. Also, the newscast about Americans crossing the border into Mexico -- illegally. [[{{Irony}} Yeah.]]
* BellisariosMaxim: Emmerich has stated that the film was never intended to be scientifically accurate - the credits claim it was based on the book ''The Coming Global Superstorm,'' by [[Radio/CoastToCoastAM Art Bell]] and [[TheGreys Whitney Striber.]]

* DontShootTheMessage: While real-life climatologists were glad to see the subject of climate change and global warming getting attention from Hollywood, they've expressed concern that the film's depiction of climate change might desensitize audiences to the reality of the issue.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment / HilariousInHindsight: The movie bases its premise on the next Ice Age being caused by global warming. The record cold winter of late '09 / early '10 ''was'' pinned on global warming by some climatologists. It's known that global warming ''can'' cause a reduction in temperatures in the north, just not anywhere nearly as cold and fast as in the movie.

** In fall 2017, mere months after the aforementioned iceberg ''twice'' the size of Rhode Island [[http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/12/world/larsen-c-antarctica/index.html broke off]], North and Central America were battered by a series of hurricanes - Harvey, Katia, Irma, with Jose just missing the continent. The latter three were all active simultaneously for a time, bearing an [[https://goo.gl/images/CqGom7 eerie resemblance]] to the map Jack produces of the projected path of the storms.
* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Laura doubling back during the deluge of New York City to help rescue a French mother and her child (who were trapped in a taxi by the waters and couldn't understand what the cop trying to help them was saying since they didn't speak English). And Sam runs back to retrieve her when the tidal wave arrives. [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan No Wonder the pair fell in love after that]].

* InferredHolocaust: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBn1Tl5TgPs&list=UUlfEht64_NrzHf8Y0slKEjw&feature=c4-overview As this video demonstrates]], most of the Northern Hemisphere has become an Arctic wasteland, all surviving Americans have gone to Mexico, which won't be able to hold them all, leading to either an American uprising or Martial Law. Canada, Europe, and Russia are all stated or shown to have suffered a similar fate to the one depicted in the US, only worse (because they're further north). Europe is implied to have got hit particularly hard, as south for them would be the Mediterranean, so they were basically trapped. India and China aren't really mentioned but India at least (and parts of China) are probably far south enough the have escaped turning into an ice cube. So that's goodbye Europe (740 million), Russia (130 million), and Canada and most of the USA (call it 250 million?), plus an unknown amount of people in Asia and the victims of all the typhoons and tsunami around the world. It's not (quite) the end of the world, but you're looking at a death toll of at least a billion, possibly closer to 2 billion, with everything north of about 35' latitude now about as hospitable as the North Pole on a bad day.

* OlderThanTheyThink: A Hollywood film from 19'''33'''(!!) called ''Deluge'' had a similar gimmick about rapid worldwide climate shifts unleashing global catastrophes, and the film's major scene also features New York City being flooded by the titular "deluge", but just after getting destroyed by a SpecialEffectsFailure-quality earthquake; see it here:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AbXQcwHyt4]]. A comparison video of the flooding scenes from ''Deluge'' and ''The Day After Tomorrow'' was even put up:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEZ0SeZlZpg]].
* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The theme when Jake Gyllenhaal and his buddies go inside the Russian ship to look for medicines sounds exactly like the main theme from "Panic Room".

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome / SpecialEffectsFailure:
** All the storm effects are incredible, especially the Wall of Water in Manhattan.
** The only visual downside in the movie is the CGI wolves which, for the most part, lack detail/complexity in their rendering. But there are still some moments where the wolves look great, such as the shots of them walking/running through the stairs.

** Many people over the course of the film. Most notably the Vice President, who dismisses Jack's advice they begin evacuating people, '''after''' he witnessed Los Angeles get destroyed by tornados.

** And everyone in the library other than Jake Gyllenhaal's character and his friends, who decide to go out in ''sub zero temperature'' to look for help. Unsurprisingly they're all frozen to death by the time Jake Gyllenhaal's character's dad comes across their bodies. Made even worse in that they essentially cause the deaths of every child that was in the library along with their parents that left the library.

---------

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: The astronaut at the end (after the disaster has destroyed civilization in the northern hemisphere and claimed countless lives) who happily declares that he's never seen the sky so clean. Apparently this is supposed to be the ending's "uplifting" note. ''Hoo'', boy...!

** This is especially troubling to a number of environmentalists as even serious discussions of climate change often go off the deep end in descriptions (claims of the poles melting overnight, our children never seeing snow) when the reality is that it will consist of single-digit changes in average temperature with potentially strong changes in rainfall.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: Laura doubling back during the deluge of New York City to help rescue a French mother and her child (who were trapped in a taxi by the waters and couldn't understand what the cop trying to help them was saying since they didn't speak English). And Sam runs back to retrieve her when the tidal wave arrives. [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan No Wonder the pair fell in love after that]].

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome / SpecialEffectsFailure:

* {{Anvilicious}}: '''''GLOBAL WARMING IS BAD'''''.
** Also, the newscast about Americans crossing the border into Mexico--illegally. [[{{Irony}} Yeah.]]