First exposure to tornadoes in the media (book, video, etc)?

[Joe Nield]

When I was about 5, we were returning from a trip when two tornadoes touched down about a half mile from us in a field. They were moving away from us, fortunately, but I was in the library the next day. If it was in the Plainfield library and had something to do with tornadoes, I read it.

Unfortunately, I read so much about their destructive power, that I scared myself to death. I was convinced that a windy overcast day meant that a tornado was coming to get me. A couple of years later, my parents decided I needed help with my phobia and took me to see a counselor, and, well, it worked a little too well.

 

[Travis Livengood]

my first exposure was in Kindergarden.

We were held in school for a tornado, the others were huddled by the far wall, I was trying to get up and get a better look.

 

[Fabian Guerra]

I discovered tornadoes first in a National Geographic magazine. I must have been 7 or 8 years old. The pictures and stories amazed me to no end.

Fabian

 

[Jeff Wear]

Above all was A.B.C. Whipple's Storm. The nice thing was that the library who had it didn't limit how may times you could renew a book. Therefore, I kept it out for about two years, probably.

That would have to mine as well. I don't know if it was the first because I went through so many books with tornado pictures between the ages of 9 and 11 they all kinda blend together, but that one stands out the most. The tornado pictures were just awesome - from the ropy backlit Kansas tornado with a huge debris cloud on the front cover, to the entire Osnabrock ND sequence, to the Wichita Falls multivortex monster. But for me it wasn't pictures or video that sparked the interest - the interest was already there so that's why I wanted to look at as many pictures of them as I could. I can recall being fascinated with dust devils and the vortex in the bathtub drain long before that.

 

[Mike Johnston]

As with some of you who have already shared your stories, my interest was sparked by one of those old 8-mm films shown to us in third grade during severe weather awareness week. The setting for this one was a tornado that struck Cherryvale, KS - a little too close for comfort since I grew up in Wichita. The plot switched back and forth between the inside of a weather office with crew-cut men in suit and tie poring over isobar maps, and a nervous farmer who keeps watching the ominous sky all day long from his farmhouse, with his wife in apron nagging him to stop worrying and quit looking out the window. After a suspensful build-up (complete with a description of "synoptically evident" conditions as we would say in modern times), the farmer finally sees a tornado out in the countryside while standing out on his front porch, runs in and dials the weather office, furiously cranking one of those real old phones. In quick succession, we see the warning being teletyped, announced on the radio, the farmer makes a run to the cellar with his wife, as the storm rolls directly towards the downtown of this little prairie town. I don't know how widely this little gem was distributed, but if NOAA would have had the foresight to collect royalties from the future stream of psychologist fees incurred by plains baby-boomers suffering from nightmares as a result, it could probably fund VORTEX projects well into the 21st century.

 

[Susan Strom]

Lightning - I was the little kid with the flashlight under the covers looking at any picture of lightning I could find among my parents' lengthy collection of science books. There was one book with the most bizarre picture of lightning, I looked at it again and again. The book was called The Earth by Time Life and the photo was lightning in Switzerland interacting with chemicals on the ground...causing the lightning to appear like a huge twisted cloth. I still remember that photo, quite incredible. It was all about lightning for me, but all the tornado chapters were read over and over as well.

 

[Darren Addy]

I would imagine that "The Wizard of Oz" was my earliest exposure, but coming close to the same time was a brush with what a REAL tornado can do:

In 1966 we took a trip to Dallas, TX and on the way drove past a huge path of destruction, which I believe was in Topeka (but may have been Wichita). It was an area that the locals had thought protected from tornadoes by a hill to the southwest. I'm not sure how much before our trip the damage took place, but seeing entire houses wiped off their foundations for a huge area certainly made an impact on me.

The following year, in 1967, our family of four took a 3-week road trip/vacation. We left early in the morning from Northeast Nebraska, and my sister and I would be awake, excited, staring out into the darkness. My parents were not stupid. They knew that later we would be asleep and they would have some peaceful day driving time, unintereupted by repeated "Are we there, yet?"

So, I was asleep in the back seat when Dad pulled over to the side of the road that overlooked Rapid City, SD - because of a big storm ahead. They watched (and I missed) the six funnel clouds that they said came out of the clouds that day, like fingers on a hand. We drove through the town a short while later and there was sporatic damage. I remember the McDonalds was hit pretty hard along with some trees and houses. I've never forgiven my parents for letting me sleep through that outbreak.

Darren Addy
Kearney, NE

 

[Colin P.McIntyre]

It was the Wizard of Oz that first introduced me to tornados in the movies. In real life it was the National Geographic episode back in 1985 or 86 about storm chasers. They talked about David Hoadley, doppler radar, and Jim Leonard. I still have that on tape.

This was also my first introduction to severe storms and chasing info.
In 1987 there was a interesting whrite up in the National Geographic
book on the TOTO deployments,this i found facinating.
How odd it was when Edmonton was hit by a F-4 Tornado the
same year.That storm set me on the path to learn more.Me and my
couson did see what we thought was a tornado in the rope stage back in
1996 but passed it of thinking that people would think we were crazy,
no one would ever guss tornadoes happen in Alberta Canada.