Discovery! 2004

On Labor Day 2004 (September 6th), the NWS forecast office in Amarillo, Texas participated in the Discovery Centers “Discovery! 2004” festival. Discovery! is an annual event in which local businesses and organizations reach out to the community by providing educational booths that help teach children (and adults) the fundamentals in science. There was a live band, plenty of concession stands, and a magnificent fire works show at the end of the day.

This year, the NWS took part in this event by handing out coloring books describing weather safety and awareness, and by creating a “tornado in a bottle” for nearly 500 children. The “tornado in a bottle” was constructed using small plastic bottles, colored water, dish soap, and glitter (for information on how you can create your own “tornado in a bottle” please e-mail us at SR-AMA.web@noaa.gov)

After being sealed tightly, the small bottles of water are shaken and a tiny vortex (or tornado) appears. When the kids found out that the could keep the miniature tornado’s, huge smiles ran across their faces with accompanying “thank you’s” and even a few adults asked “May I have one too please?”.

Thank you to the following folks:

A big thank you goes out to Baptist Saint Anthony’s hospital, Medegen Medical, and Solar Biologicals for donating the hundreds of bottles that were used in constructing the tornado in a bottle. This was definitely a big hit as we ran out of tornados before 6:00 pm! The NWS would also like to thank the Discovery Center for allowing us to put up our booth and teach the kids about weather. Last but not least, thank you to the many staff members from the NWS who volunteered their time and contributed their weather expertise so that hundreds of children who stopped by our booth were able to get their very own tornado in a bottle.