Southwest Florida Middle School Weather Camp – 2016 – Day 3 Reflective Journal Entries
Jake N. – “Today at weather camp was cool because we made progress on the weather hot air balloons. We got our panels glued together. It’s starting to look like a balloon. We also learned about rain shadows [which occur around mountains when they block the formation or passage of rain showers]. We also made hurricanes and tornadoes with water, a spoon, food coloring, and a clear tub of water. This was my very cool third day at weather camp.”
Garrett H. – “Today was a little bit more stressful as we were finishing up our balloons. I was stressed with the severe weather going on, [not knowing] if I my [weather] radio [at home] went off while I was at camp. Back to the balloon, we finished almost all of it and relieved [the related] stress. Learning about rain changing to snow in higher elevations made me much more aware and well learned. Finding out Mr. Mogil worked for the “SPC” [Storm Prediction Center, back when it was in Missouri] made me extremely excited for my future in meteorology.”
Jolette G. – “There was a thunderstorm [today] and the lightning made a fire. So today we learned about fire and lightning in the morning. After that we all went outside and measured the wind speed and how hot it was outside. When we came inside it was lunch time, For lunch we ate chicken nuggets. After lunch we went back to the classroom, and we made tornadoes inside of hurricanes. After that we went to make our balloons. Then we went back to the room and we made up a story. Then we ended the day and went home.”
Tom M. – “We started out with our balloons, then went outside to look at the fire [in thre distance to our north]. Then we went to measure heat [the outside temperature]. It was 89 degrees outside but it felt like 108. We measured [different] surfaces and Mr. Mogil’s blue car was a crazy 172!! We came inside to do an experiment with hurricanes and two tornadoes. Then we had lunch which was chicken nuggets and hash browns. Then, we attached our second to last part of our balloons. We made up a story not knowing we did. Then Mr. Mogil told us about [the time] he was on his second day [working the forecast desk at the Storm Prediction Center]. A tornado watch was in the wrong place [over Texas] so [after he analyzed data], he issued a watch over the whole state of Kansas. A police officer got hit twice, by two different tornadoes.”