Tornadoes and Hurricanes!


Book Description

Explores tornadoes and hurricanes, discussing their causes, what happens during them, where they frequently take place, and how to remain safe if they occur.




Storm Warning


Book Description

Veteran journalist Mathis has produced a compulsively readable account of one of the most terrible tornadoes in history--a mile-wide F5 twister--and the extraordinary people who kept it from becoming the deadliest.




Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, Lightning, Nature's Most Violent Storms: a Preparedness Guide, Including Tornado Safety Information for Schools


Book Description

This illustrated guide showcases some facts about weather-related events and suggests life-saving actions you can take, if you find yourself in an unexpected situation resulting from a weather-related event. The goal of this booklet is to present you with details on how to recognize severe weather, be aware of your surroundings, and to encourage you to develop a plan to be ready to act when threatening weather approaches. Here is a bird's eye-view of the weather-related events that are covered in this guide with a few short facts about each that are also presented in the guide. Lightning... ¦ Causes an average of 55-60 fatalities and 400 injuries each year ¦ Occurs with all thunderstorms ¦ Costs more than $1 billion in insured losses each year Tornadoes... ¦ Cause an average of 60-65 fatalities and 1,500 injuries each year ¦ Can produce wind speeds in excess of 200 mph ¦ Can be 1 mile wide and stay on the ground over 50 miles Straight-line Winds... ¦ Can exceed 125 mph ¦ Can cause destruction equal to a tornado ¦ Are extremely dangerous to aviation Flash Floods and Floods... ¦ Are the #1 cause of deaths associated with thunderstorms, more than 90 fatalities each year Hail... ¦ Can be larger than a softball (5 inches in diameter) ¦ Causes more than $1 billion in crop and property damage each year Some helpful tips included in this guide include how quickly these weather-events can result to a devastating situation. Therefore, it emphasizes that by having a plan in place prior to the event that is practiced from time to time, will allow response actions to be positive rather than stressful. This resource also provides guidance on the type of items that should be included in an Emergency Supply Kit for use at home, office, school, or place of business. There is also a special section dedicated to schools and working with children during an unexpected weather emergency. This school section also includes proper inspections and maintenance of buildings, and recommends emergency drills to practice the school safety plans with children including handling of disabled personnel and/or children.




Tornado God


Book Description

One of the earliest sources of humanity's religious impulse was severe weather, which ancient peoples attributed to the wrath of storm gods. Enlightenment thinkers derided such beliefs as superstition, but in America, scientific and theological hubris came face-to-face with the tornado, nature's most violent windstorm. In this groundbreaking history, Peter J. Thuesen traces the primal connections between weather and religion in the United States. He shows that tornadoes and other storms have repeatedly drawn Americans into the profoundest of religious mysteries and confronted them with the question of their own destiny--how much is self-determined and how much is beyond human understanding or control.




Adventures in Tornado Alley


Book Description

From surreal skyscapes to wholesale destruction: the most dramatic scenes from the natural world. The destructive power of nature has always been a source of fear and fascination, and never more so than now, when climate change and extreme weather conditions are constantly in the news. Across the central United States, the infamous storms of Tornado Alley are fueled by the collision of cold fronts from Canada and warm fronts from the Gulf of Mexico. People have been chasing these storms for decades in pursuit of thrilling experiences, but now a new generation of storm chasers is combining scientific knowledge with powerful images. This book follows Mike Hollingshead and Eric Nguyen on seventeen chases through Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and South Dakota, illustrating the unfolding events with sequential shots and a running commentary by the chasers themselves. These spectacular storm portfolios are expanded with special features on weather phenomena like hail and mammatus clouds plus insights into forecasting and research.




The Science of a Tornado


Book Description

This book discusses the science behind tornadoes and their effects. The chapters describe deadly tornadoes, examine the weather conditions that cause tornadoes, and explain how people prepare for these disasters. Diagrams, charts, and photos provide opportunities to evaluate and understand the scientific concepts involved.




Storm Kings


Book Description

With 16 pages of black-and-white illustrations In Storm Kings, Lee Sandlin retraces America's fascination and unique relationship to tornadoes and the weather. From Ben Franklin's early experiments, to "the great storm debates" of the nineteenth century, to heartland life in the early twentieth century, Sandlin shows how tornado chasing helped foster the birth of meteorology, recreating with vivid descriptions some of the most devastating storms in America's history. Drawing on memoirs, letters, eyewitness testimonies, and numerous archives, Sandlin brings to life the forgotten characters and scientists that changed a nation and how successive generations came to understand and finally coexist with the spiraling menace that could erase lives and whole towns in an instant.




Tornado Alley


Book Description

Tornadoes are the most violent, magnificent, and utterly unpredictable storms on earth, reaching estimated wind speeds of 300 mph and leaving swaths of destruction in their wake. In Tornado Alley, Howard Bluestein draws on two decades of experience chasing and photographing tornadoes across the Plains to present a fascinating historical account of the study of tornadoes and the great thunderstorms that spawn them. A century ago, tornado warnings were so unreliable that they usually went unreported. Today, despite cutting-edge Doppler radar technology and computer simulation, these storms remain remarkably difficult to study. Leading scientists still conduct much of their research from the inside of a speeding truck, and often contend with jammed cameras, flash floods, and windshields smashed by hailstones and flying debris. Using over a hundred diagrams, models, and his own spectacular color photographs, Bluestein documents the exhilaration of hair-raising encounters with as many as nine tornadoes in one day, as well as the crushing disappointment of failed expeditions and ruined equipment. Most of all, he recreates the sense of beauty, mystery, and power felt by the scientists who risk their lives to study violent storms. For scientists, amateur weather enthusiasts, or anyone who's ever been intrigued or terrified by a darkening sky, Tornado Alley provides not only a history of tornado research but a vivid look into the origin and effects of nature's most dramatic phenomena.




Into the Storm


Book Description

An eye-of-the-hurricane view of storm chasing from the star of the Discovery Channel hit series Storm Chasers. Only one in ten chases actually intercept a tornado-unless you're Reed Timmer. The thrill-seeking meteorologist and star of Storm Chasers has followed and faced down more violent tornadoes than anyone. Into the Storm brings readers into the mind of this man and his mission—collecting data on tornadoes and hurricanes that could save lives—in the terrifying, awe-inspiring world of big weather. Into the Storm is also a fascinating look at the science of weather—what causes extreme conditions, its connection to climate change, and how a tornado gets its stovepipe structure.




Erased by a Tornado!


Book Description

Explains the causes and characteristics of tornadoes and scientific advances in storm prediction.