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A meteorologist known as "Mr. Tornado", Fujita came up with the measurement standard to classify the strength of tornadoes, and was the first to realize that strong, downward air blasts -- microbursts -- were the cause of some plane crashes. That discovery, first applied to a 1975 plane crash in New York, led to Doppler radar being installed at major airports. Born and educated in Japan, he joined the University of Chicago in 1953, and most recently working in their Wind Research Laboratory. Fujita died November 19 at age 78. From This is True for 15 November 1998 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Mary Pope Osborne List Price: $3.99 Amazon Price: $3.99 Editorial Review: In book 23 of the Magic Tree House, award-winning author Mary Pope Osborne's popular young adventure series, siblings Jack and Annie travel back to American pioneer times. Their task, assigned by mysterious Camelot librarian Morgan le Fay, is to find "something to learn." When their magic tree house alights on a Kansas prairie in the 1870s, Jack and Annie quickly find a one-room schoolhouse with classes in session. Something to learn! After an all-too-brief school day, the two return to the tree house with their mission completed. But wait: "In the distance, twisting black clouds had dropped out of the storm clouds. They swirled into a funnel shape." A twister! And the young teacher and students in the school don't realize there's a storm cellar under the floor. Jack and Annie must brave the howling winds to return and save their new friends. Osborne's insatiable devotees will devour her latest adventure story, following Civil War on Sunday, Revolutionary War on Wednesday, and all the other titles in this exciting series. What better way to learn about history than to travel through time and space, experiencing it firsthand? (Ages 6 to 9) --Emilie CoulterIn the third book of the American history cluster, Jack and Annie are whisked to a midwestern prairie in the 1870s. They visit a one-room schoolhouse and learn about the hard life of the pioneers. When they return to the magic tree house, Jack and Annie spot a twister on the horizon. Is there time to warn the teacher and the children back at the schoolhouse? Or should Jack and Annie just save themselves?  By: Karen Kingsbury List Price: $13.99 Amazon Price: $11.19 Editorial Review: John Baxter hires a private investigator to fulfill his wife's dying wish--that they find their firstborn son and make him part of the Baxter family. Meanwhile, top Hollywood actor Dayne Matthews undergoes a personal search for truth despite great loss, and Christian Kids Theater director Katy Hart makes a decision that could take her from the simple life she has grown to love.  By: Mike HollingsheadEric Nguyen List Price: $29.95 Amazon Price: $19.77 Editorial Review: 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. 340 color illustrations.  List Price: $35.00 Amazon Price: $23.10 Editorial Review: The weather used to be reported after the news; today, it often is the news. Tracking news-making weather, storm chasers seek dramatic images of tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, lightning storms, and other extreme and unusual weather phenomena. News organizations compete to broadcast and publish these images because people care passionately about the weather. Jim Reed is one of America’s most successful and award-winning storm chasers in an era when global climate is changing. His fifteen years of photography documents this change. As the years go by, he sees spring come earlier, summers get hotter, and tornadoes and hurricanes increase in frequency and intensity. In Storm Chaser, a beautiful picture book about some of the most powerful—and sometimes deadly—phenomena in our world, Reed shares his best images and his experiences as he tracks these storms throughout the country.  By: Will OsborneMary Pope Osborne List Price: $4.99 Amazon Price: $4.99 Editorial Review: What causes the earth’s weather? How do twisters form? What are the deadliest storms on earth? Find out the answers to these questions and more in Magic Tree House Research Guide: Twisters and Other Terrible Storms, Jack and Annie’s guide to nature’s wildest weather. Includes photographs, definitions, an index, information on twisters, hurricanes, blizzards, forecasting the weather, storm chasers, and much more! |
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