It's All About The Weather

Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of driving my daughter and Piper out to the airport to tour the National Weather Service office. Piper is very interested in the weather and especially tornados.
Tori had been told that the tour would last about 20 minutes, but, we were there for over an hour. We all learned soooooo much.
We started by looking at the 'old' equipment. This is a rain gauge:

The aluminum cylinder in front is also a rain guage. The one they are looking at measures rain by weight. The one in front is measured using a 2 inch tube and a ruler.










This is the little 'house' that holds themometers for air and ground temperatures. There is also one that measures wet temperature that is then converted to humidity.

After our outside tour we were taken inside to see all of the COMPUTERS!!!!!!!!!
There was this one room that had monitors all the way around the room. Piper was shown how all of the weather systems look on the radar and how the radar really works. It was awesome. She was shown heavy thunderstorms, how they form, the different kinds, she learned about thunder and lightening. Yes, she even learned how the radar detects tornados!!!!

While we were there the weekly emergency test went out. So she was able to see how that worked and it was explained about how the test was used to test the weather alert radios.

Do you have a weather alert radio? They are not very expensive and can certainly save lives.


When it was time to leave, Piper was given all kinds of literature to continue her study of the weather. I do believe she had a great time and really learned a lot. I know that I sure did.

The people at the National Weather Service office are to be commended. Although this tour was only suppose to last 20 minutes, they picked up on the fact that they had Piper's attention and kept talking as long an she kept listening. I really appreciate them taking the time to educate a 'sponge'. We never know what will be retained or how it will affect a child in the future when we do things like this.

Of course we had to have lunch after our tour. It was my time to choose and Miyo's is one of my favorite places in Columbia. We had lunch on Forest Drive. Do you think Piper enjoyed her Mermaid Roll?

Once we finished our lunch we went to the movies. 'Judy Moody and the Not so Bummer Summer'. When did the seats in movie theaters get so hard? Of course I haven't been to the movies since the First Harry Potter film came out.

It really was a great day. Fun and educational--------just like a trip with this Grandmommie should be.

Next week-------All about our trip to Knoxville. Pat, Vicky McCormick and I are on our way,to Knoxville to the AQS show, on Monday morning. There is a shop hop starting in South Carolina this weekend and we will 'follow' the trail all the way up I-26. We'll shop in North Carolina, then into Tennessee and will arrive in Knoxville mid-day on Tuesday. That will be 2 days for a 6 hour trip. Oh what fun we will have. Stay tuned for all of the pictures as soon as I can download and get them to you.

Oh yes, by the way, we will be traveling with Roada------Roada F. Tripp. This is gonna be good.
Have a safe week.