My Tornado Story

By Thomas, Age 11

It started as a regular day and I looked out the window and clouds appeared. I said OK, it's nothing to worry about. Ten minutes later, a thunder cloud was building. Then I got worried. The wind picked up and was coming from the southeast at about 45 to 50 miles per hour. It was then I really got worried.

It started to hail and rain really hard and I looked up at the sky and saw a vortex. The clouds went around it and on the Fujita scale (a tornado measurement scale) it started as an F-1 and grew to an F-2 (link to scale here). During the tornado, I went outside in a ditch about five feet deep. I lived in a trailer park and it went right back up before it hit the park. I'm thankful I'm still alive after that close call!

Note: This tornado occurred in Pennsylvania in May 1999.