Weather "From the beginning, slowness defined it. Tedious, plodding, grinding, unrelenting slowness…And when the storm system took an unexpected turn as it spread into the central Plains, the table was set for violent weather," (Hoedel & Gutierrez, 2012). Hoedel & Gutierrez (2012) are describing the mysterious origins of the 2011 Joplin, Missouri tornado, one of the deadliest in American history. After its tumultuous journey "down the Pacific Coast, across the California

Although I have not experienced a weather-related disaster that resulted in deaths at a school, I was present during a flash flood that caused several people—staff, students, and teachers—to suffer minor injuries. The event catalyzed the community into action. The existing emergency management plan was fairly detailed and yet it was not taken seriously enough by school administrators to have in place the requisite resources or protocols. More importantly, staff

Television can influence kids in many ways, some of them great, and some of them not so great. In my future, I see science and the weather playing a big part, and because of that, I think the Weather Channel has most influenced me and my choices for the future. I was not a fan of weather or of science for that matter, until I got hooked on the

"The Great Storm reigns today as the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Between 10,000 and 12,000 people died during the storm...the added toll on commercial structures created a monetary loss of $30 million, about $700 million in today's dollars" (Smith 2003). A more recent powerful tropical system that affected the Texas coast was that of Hurricane Carla. Carla illustrated how storms are particularly damaging to the low-lying areas of

TORNADOES What causes a tornado? Tornado' comes in English from a Spanish word 'tornada' that means 'thunderstorm'. As defined by Nation Weather Service, a tornado is a 'violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and pendant from a thunderstorm'. Tornadoes result when there is stuffiest amount of moisture in the atmosphere at lower and mid levels, and when this condition gets combined with warm unstable air that rises above

Seconds later the twister struck. The kitchen door fell on the husband, pinning him to the ground. After the roof blew away, hail battered his face and body. The house disintegrated, but he survived and so did the dog. The woman, however, was crushed in the debris (Rosenfeld 179). By coincidence, researchers from the University of Oklahoma were just outside Spencer before the tornado hit, which is one reason authors