Twister and Lighty

There's a Tornado!


By Dustin Mihm

 



Twister and Lighty love to go to school.  Their favorite class is Science.  Today is a very exciting day!  The class is learning about tornadoes and today they get to create a tornado. 



Twister and Lighty are partners and get right to work.  Twister fills the jar three fourths full, while Lighty adds food coloring.  They twist the lid on and Twister shakes up the jar vigorously!  He stops and gives the jar a twist.  He sets the jar down on the table and they both gasped.



A funnel formed in the middle of the jar.  Twister and Lighty were both amazed and excited they got the funnel to form.  They soon got bored of it and wanted to add something.  They asked their teacher what would happen if they put something in it.



The teacher told them to try it.  He pulled out some monopoly houses and told Twister and Lighty to add them to the jar.  So, Lighty added the houses and shook up the jar with everything in it.  He gave it a twist and set it on the table. 



The houses spun along with the created funnel.  They spun upside down, sideways and were out of control.  "Is that what happens with a real tornado," Twister asked.  "You betcha," replied his teacher.



The experiment was done and everyone had to clean up their stations.  They put every thing back where they found it and sat down in their seats.  The teacher pulled down a map on the wall that showed the entire United States with a yellow highlighted center.  "The highlighted part on the map is known as Tornado Alley.  This is the area of the United States where most tornadoes occur!" he told the class. 



Twister looked at the map closely and turned to Lighty, "We live in Wisconsin and thats not highlighted.  Does that mean we don't ever have tornadoes?"  The teacher over heard him and replied, "No, Wisconsin still has tornadoes and they are just as destructive, but in an average year, there aren't as many in Wisconsin as in Tornado Alley."



The teacher went on to explain that tornadoes occur when cold and warm air fronts meet together and start spinning.  The spinning is what forms the funnel cloud.  Just then something startled everyone!



The tornado alarm started going off!  Everyone got scared and started to get up.  The teacher told them all to line up at the door and they went down to the basement where there were no windows.  The teacher demonstrated how to curl up on the ground next to the wall and they all followed him. 



They all knelt down on there knees and curled their bodies up to their knees as close as possible.  Then, they put their hands over their heads.  They tried to cover up their head and body as much as possible to keep from getting hit by flying debris.



After awhile, the tornado left and everyone came out from the basement.  The teacher let the kids look out the window when they got back to the classroom and saw only clouds left in the sky.  The tornado thankfully missed everything, but it was a scary event.  They were all safe because of the safety tips they were taught by the teacher.