METEOROLOGY. With climate change and global warming creating more frequent and more violent storms, there is a huge readership for weather disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes. This book will appeal to the audience for the bestseller "Perfect Storm". This page-turning story of tornado chaser and National Geographic grantee Tim Samaras opens with a chilling, play-by-play description of the F5 tornado that wiped off the map the town of Manchester, North Dakota, on June 24, 2003. Stefan Bechtel, author of the acclaimed "Roar of the Heavens" teams with Samaras to reveal the heart and people of the town, the terror of the descending funnel, Samaras' fearless chase to the tornado's core, and the ingenious equipment he masterminded to record the inner workings of a tornado - to aid in future detection, avoidance, and destruction.

The saga of the greatest tornado chaser who ever lived: a tale of obsession and daring and an extraordinary account of humanity’s high-stakes race to understand nature’s fiercest phenomenon from Brantley Hargrove, “one of today’s great science writers” (The Washington Post). At the turn of the twenty-first century, the tornado was one of the last true mysteries of the modern world. It was a monster that ravaged the American heartland a thousand times each year, yet science’s every effort to divine its inner workings had ended in failure. Researchers all but gave up, until the arrival of an outsider. In a field of PhDs, Tim Samaras didn’t attend a day of college in his life. He chased storms with brilliant tools of his own invention and pushed closer to the tornado than anyone else ever dared. When he achieved what meteorologists had deemed impossible, it was as if he had snatched the fire of the gods. Yet even as he transformed the field, Samaras kept on pushing. As his ambitions grew, so did the risks. And when he finally met his match—in a faceoff against the largest tornado ever recorded—it upended everything he thought he knew. Brantley Hargrove delivers a “cinematically thrilling and scientifically wonky” (Outside) tale, chronicling the life of Tim Samaras in all its triumph and tragedy. Hargrove takes readers inside the thrill of the chase, the captivating science of tornadoes, and the remarkable character of a man who walked the line between life and death in pursuit of knowledge. The Man Who Caught the Storm is an “adrenaline rush of a tornado chase…Readers from all across the spectrum will enjoy this” (Library Journal, starred review) unforgettable exploration of obsession and the extremes of the natural world.

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.

The moment Jessica lays eyes on the wild black-and-white paint filly, she knows it was meant to be Jessica’s life at Wild Hawk Ranch is happy, if a bit quiet. But everything changes when her father and brother drive the latest herd of wild young quarter horses into the pen at the family ranch. There, she spots the most beautiful black-and-while paint filly she’s ever seen. She just knows . . . this is the year, and that is the horse. Her moment has come—she’ll finally get to join her father and brother in the family business of breaking wild horses, if only she can convince her father she is old enough. But after a difficult turn, the family has no option but to keep the ranch afloat by turning it into a dude ranch for vacationing city folk. At first, Jess is thrilled by the idea. It will be fun to have new people around—and maybe the extra work will convince her father to give her Storm Chaser, the beautiful paint. But things get complicated when the guests begin arriving. Will Jess be able to salvage her old, happy life and save Storm Chaser from an uncertain future?

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.

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.

Emily¿s dad studies the weather for a living, and he and Emily have been watching and waiting for a tornado all week. What happens when they get caught right in the storm¿s path? Storm Chaser connects to Chasing the Storm from the Discover Our World series.