My Encounter With a Tornado

It all started in the Slidell library almost 25 years ago. No, it wasn’t with a real, life-sized twister, but with a video that led me to build a three-foot tall tornado powered by a humidifier, a fan, and a hair dryer. 

I was teaching earth science to a homeschool group of junior high school students and needed more hands-on material. As I was in the check-out line with my son Paul, a video caught the corner of my eye, but it wasn’t the title that caught my eye, but the subtitle. “Build Your Own Model Tornado”  it screamed and I complied.

After watching the video, I realized that it was missing instructions and that I needed help. I enlisted my friend Doug, a mechanical engineer who was as fascinated with the project as I was. He guessed at some dimensions as we took off to Home Depot to build the elaborate table and pipes that connected the flow. Several Saturdays, five trips to the Depot, and a few hundred dollars later, the EF0.01 twister was born.

I took it to schools, where students were fascinated by my demonstration. For many, it was hard to believe that a tornado could form in the open air between rows of pipes with holes in them. Some students could hardly stop asking questions.

Next, it was on to the National Science Teachers Association convention where the twister got discovered. After a demonstration to hundreds of teachers, about 20 stormed the podium afterwards full of questions.

One of them was the owner of an educational supply company who wanted to build a slightly smaller one out of molded plastic, a garden-mister, and PC fans.  That’s the one shown in the photos. The company gave me a contract with them to test prototypes, write a teacher’s manual, and promote the device, called “The Teaching Tornado”.

In the 17 years of production, at least 5,000 of them sold to teachers, TV weathermen, firehouses, small museums – any place where elementary and junior high school students have an interest in severe weather.

More importantly, I had a blast interacting with students as they twisted pipes, taped holes in the pipes, and changed fan speeds to help them learn a bit more about how tornadoes form and die. Student biases were uncovered, model deficiencies were discovered, and teaching was reinforced.

Some students had fun sketching me and the tornado. One of their sketches became my logo for “Wound Up on Weather” that I use today.

Unfortunately, the company that made them went out of business a few years ago and the last units sold. I still have a few of the original units that I use for demonstrations.  And, no, my tornadoes can’t pick up a thing, not even glitter. But they sure are great for teaching.

P.S. I’m still available for demonstrations.