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Presents...
3 Check It Out! 4 Adventures of a Storm Chaser 6 10 Weird and Wacky Facts 8 Howling Hurricanes 9 Dancing Devils 10 Puzzles 12 The Lost Snowman 16 Grandma Addie and the 18-Wheeler 18 Blizzard Blast 19 Weather Funnies 20 Animals That Predict the Weather 21 Weather Whiz Kidz 22 Chasing Rainbows 23 CD Rainbow 24 Max & Gracie 25 Cloud Cover 26 Weather Wizards of Ancient Times 29 Kids Corner 30 Puzzle Solutions 2
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eather affects us all. Will I need a jacket when I go out in the morning? Is it going to snow enough tonight for school to be cancelled? I sure hope our soccer game doesn’t get rained out. These are some of the thoughts we might have on any given day. It is all because of the weather. We can’t control the weather, but it is fascinating to think about. Thunderstorms and tornadoes are especially serious and scary. Imagine riding in a car that is chasing a bad storm or tornado! This is only for trained storm chasers. You can read about one person’s frightening experience in this issue. You’ll also discover lots of odd facts and events, like the time it rained worms and the year there was no summer. Sometimes it’s just fun to tell jokes about the weather since we can’t do anything about it. How does rain tie its shoe? With a rainbow. What is a tornado’s favorite game? Twister. I’ll bet you know a weather joke or riddle. Send it in, and we’ll publish your weather funny. Draw a picture, or write and tell us what the weather is like right now where you live. All you have to do is go outside and look! Rain or shine, send your weather report to: Kids Corner, PO Box 227, Bluffton, OH 45817-0227, or email us at: kidscorner@funforkidz.com.
How can I be a sun flower with all this snow?
It’s so hot, they’re frying eggs on the road!
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Did you ever plunge down a roller coaster? Heart pounding, you’re filled with joy, fear, and overpowering excitement. That is how storm chasers feel when they spot a funnel cloud. Storm chasers devote their lives to the study of thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes. They are trying to save lives and property loss. These costs can run into millions of dollars. One storm chaser told us about one of his scariest chases that took place in Texas. The area had been hit with an outbreak of tornadoes. A team mapped out the likely strike areas. Each driver had an assigned position to reach for the afternoon outbreak. The storm chaser had other passengers in his car. These included a computer/weather equipment operator in the front seat and a cameraman in the back seat. As they were traveling to their assigned spot, they realized something was wrong. All of a sudden, it was dark as night. The wind was blowing 50 miles per hour. There was golf-ball-sized hail. The rain was so heavy, they couldn’t see. They were inside the core of the thunderstorm. This was the most dangerous place they could be. They stopped to get their bearings. They had lost all radio contact with the command vehicle and the Doppler radar. The team had received reports of tornadoes ahead of them coming their way. That was the last information they had. The team inched forward. The wind was throwing debris and more hail at the car. As they cleared the worst of the rain, they were confronted with an awesome sight. Right in front of them was a 1.3-mile-wide tornado. It took up half of the horizon. The funnel was rotating faster than it was moving. It was four times as wide as it was tall. The team was only 500 feet away from the monster. They started taking pictures and videos as fast as they could.
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illustration by Deborah C. Wright • colored by Gaurakisora Tucker
Then their radio was restored. They sent the tornado coordinates to the lead car. The funnel was moving away from them. The team thought they were out of danger. But then, a small tornado came around and whipped right in front of them, spinning into the main tornado. Trees and telephone poles were snapping behind them. Although they knew large tornadoes can spawn smaller satellite funnels, this was the first time this storm chaser had been between a smaller tornado and the main one. This was the most dangerous spot the storm chaser had ever been in. The amount of energy in a strong storm like this is more powerful than an atomic bomb. Fortunately for the team, they drove out of it and were unharmed. You can be a storm chaser without driving toward a tornado. Just use your eyes and ears and watch the sky. You can be a dedicated weather observer without even leaving your neighborhood.
Teenage storm chaser Matt Biddle and a tornado
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An ocean may look calm and quiet, but far off in the distance, a hurricane may be forming. Hurricanes are intense tropical cyclones that can stay in the ocean for days or even weeks. They gain strength as they move over warm tropical waters and begin to grow and grow and GROW. As the ocean winds become more powerful, hurricanes begin to swirl and spin rapidly. Most hurricanes stay in the ocean, skimming across the water before dying off. Sometimes, though, hurricanes slam into coastal areas, where many people live. A hurricane can drop over 2 trillion gallons of drenching rain a day and can have ferocious, roaring 180-mph winds! It can produce tornadoes, huge waves, and floods. These cause devastating damage, even in areas far from the coast. Hurricanes can be as much as 500 miles wide. A hurricane’s eye can be from 2 to over 200 miles wide. The eye is the calm center of a hurricane. The Galveston, Texas, hurricane of 1900 caused between 6000 and 12,000 deaths. No one knows how many. People knew a hurricane was coming, but they didn’t know exactly when or where it would land.
In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused massive damage along the Gulf of Mexico.
Did You Know? Tropical cyclones go by different names depending on where they form: hurricane - Atlantic or Eastern Pacific Ocean typhoon - Western North Pacific Ocean cyclone – South Pacific and Indian Ocean
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Tornadoes can be different sizes and shapes. Some of them can be 2-1/2 miles wide!
What would you call whirling funnels of furiously spinning air? Native Americans called them dancing devils. Some people today call them twisters. Meteorologists know them as tornadoes. Weather conditions have to be just right for a tornado to form. There must be thunderstorm clouds. Then cool, dry air must rise from the ground and meet warm, moist air in the clouds. Next, fast-moving winds get to work. They mix and swirl the air together. Soon there is a horizontal tube of rolling air. But it’s not a tornado yet. Strong winds tilt the tube downward toward the ground. A funnel takes shape, and it pulls in more warm air and gets W I D E R,
L O N G E R,
and spins FA S T E R.
Before long, the funnel’s tail touches the ground. Now, it’s a tornado! A strong, fast tornado can speed across the landscape at 70 mph. The amazingly powerful winds of these mean monsters can destroy everything in their path. They can blow apart buildings, uproot trees, crush cars, and even pull water out of streams. Not everything is known about dancing devils, but one thing is sure: You never want to meet one.
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