I am a Storm Chaser

Have you ever heard of storm chasers? (Storm chasers are people that chase storms.) I was a storm chaser. Today, I went chasing a tornado with my dad in an SUV. We chased it in Kansas where is a part of the “tornado alley”.

On a Monday in July, my dad and I left the house at 7:00a.m. We went searching for a tornado. It took us two hours to find one. Once we got a close up view I looked at the sky, it was gray. It was also raining, and as we got closer there was more and more wind. I felt great, because now I could brag about being near a tornado. It was just starting to form.

First there was a thunderstorm. Next, it got warm from the west and cool and dry from the east. Once they bumped into each other they had created instability inside the atmosphere. The wind increased, and the height created a horizontal spinning effect. The air that rose made the spinning effect turn vertical.

After we watched it for ten minutes, we saw house’s shingles fly away, and some even crashed down. The ones that crashed down crashed, because the tornado went over it. Houses next to it only had a couple shingles blow off.

My dad and I watched in amazement for forty-five minutes. As it got smaller and smaller, we saw a rainbow come out. It was a double rainbow. (Double rainbows are two rainbows, one on top of the other.) Researchers are not quite sure how tornados stop.

It was noon, and we were starving. I said to my dad, “That made me hungry. Can we get a hot dog at the food court or something?” He said, “Sure.” We met my grandmother, my mom and my sister at the food court. I told everyone my adventures.



11/10/2009