Staying Safe in All Weather

{Credit: NASA , Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using USGS Landsat data}

The south is still in recovery mode after the storms that ripped through the area in the last few weeks. Some NASA images taken via Landsatellite are helping scientists understand the paths of the tornadoes. You might have heard your parents talking about the storms, or maybe you even live near where they took place. Storms that involve tornadoes should be taken seriously, so it's good to be informed about what to do just in case. If you hear grown-ups talking about a tornado watch, this just means that the current weather conditions are right to possibly produce a tornado. Think of it like this...during a tornado watch, the weather services are just on the lookout for tornadoes, watching for a possible one.

{Credit: NASA MODIS Rapid Response Team, Jeff Schmaltz}

If you hear that a tornado warning has been issued, this means an actual tornado has been spotted in the area. This is when it's time to head to a safe room, maybe a basement or bathroom with no windows. Anything unknown can seem scary, but with the right information and awareness, we can all take the necessary precautions and stay safe.

For more information about staying safe and informed about weather and storms, visit this site and become a Disaster Action Kid! Stay safe friends!

Rainbows & Weather

Have you ever woken up after a stormy night to see a beautiful rainbow stretched across the sky? When the Sun shines on droplets of moisture in the Earth’s atmosphere, it causes us to see a rainbow. These colorful arcs are unusual and remarkable things. Did you know that rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite from the sun?

Scientists have recently discovered that rainbows could help them to learn more about particles in the air called aerosols which have huge effects on our climate. There are all different kinds of aerosols: small, big, non-spherical, ice particles, and cloud droplets. The way that NASA scientists figure out which kind is present is by using a method called polarization.

Sometimes the reflected light from the Sun is so bright, rainbows just aren’t visible. But this doesn’t mean that they aren’t there. Using polarization, scientists can view the sky and actually see a rainbow, in order to measure it. Measuring rainbows can help them to learn exactly how big the water droplets are and how close they are together. Understanding these things will help scientists to better understand how clouds form in the first place and clouds are the building blocks of our weather.