Fun for Kids with the Doppler on Wheels

Unfortunately it is warm and pouring rain on the Tug Hill Plateau today and we're watching the snow disappear before our eyes.

Yesterday, however, was a great day as we visited Pulaski High School and brought our friends from the Center for Severe Weather Research with us with their Doppler on Wheels (DOW).  

Courtesy Jamie Hefti/Pulaski High School

If you think teenagers don't think science is cool, drive this beastie into their parking lot sometime and you will see their eyes light up.  Especially when they go inside.

Sometimes you get lucky with visits like this.  If you want to take a bunch of kids outside to learn about snow crystals, it's best if it is snowing very lightly so that it is manageable.  That's what we found when we arrived, plus we learned that they had a bunch of small magnifying glasses in the classroom, so we did some crystal identification and some exercises in snow water content (a.k.a., density).

Courtesy Jamie Hefti/Pulaski High School

Courtesy Jamie Hefti/Pulaski High School

Turns out the students were interested in avalanches, so I ended up taking them on a virtual trip to Utah's Little Cottonwood Canyon and showed them all that goes on to keep the road open during winter.   This was perhaps my only hope of competing with the DOW!

Courtesy Jamie Hefti/Pulaski High School

Special thanks to all the Steenburgh and Center for Severe Weather Research groupies who made it such a great day for the Pulaski High students.

Back into the field tomorrow.  No rest for the weary!