Fact Friday: Tornado Scientist: seeing inside severe storms by Mary Kay Carson.

Image: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Tornado Scientist: seeing inside severe storms by Mary Kay Carson. Photographs by Tom Uhlman. Scientists in the Field series. 76 p. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, March, 2019. 9780544965829. (Review of finished purchased copy.)

Fact Friday features Tornado Scientist: seeing inside severe storms by Mary Kay Carson. This entry in the Scientist in the Field series sure does wow. Meteorologist Robin Tanamachi got hooked on tornados when she seven-years-old and the local news showed film of a tornado ripping through a local park. She told author Carson, "That was when I knew I wanted to be a research meteorologist studying severe weather." Tanamachi is a storm-chaser dedicated to studying tornadoes. In this photo-filled book readers learn about the project she headed, all about the two tornado corridors in the U.S., the physics and life-cycle of a tornado and more. There's even a list of storm-chaser slang in addition to a glossary, which explains many of the acronyms associated with the field. Other back matter includes websites, books, source notes and photo credits.

If you're into weather, technology, science, or just the adrenaline rush of the chase, The Tornado Scientist is the book for you! This one might be my new favorite entry! Robin Tanamachi is bad-ass!

This book so would've appealed to my now adult son when he was young. He was obsessed with weather from an early age and began predicting it quite accurately without all the tools and gadgets that are available now. Even now, his interest in weather remains high and his his predictions (using the gadgets) are accurate! He did start college as a meteorology major but couldn't get past the second year of calculus.