Dream trip? Or a nightmare of trouble? When Hannah Gruen inherits a farm from a distant cousin, the Drews, with Bess and George, drive off for a scenic Oklahoma vacation. The plan is to sell the property and pack up whatever mementos Hannah wants to keep. But a terrifying encounter with a tornado is just the beginning of trouble. In a duffel bag Nancy discovers what looks like a ransom note—and a gruff intruder appears, insisting that the bag is his! Is he planning a kidnapping? Nancy contacts the local police, but they think it’s a prank. When charming Derek Owens, a tornado chaser at the local university, offers to help, Nancy accepts faster than a lightning flash. But the clues she discovers lead her deeper into peril, and Nancy’s soon fighting for her life—in the eye of a monster storm!

For scientists, amateur weather enthusiasts, or anyone intrigued or terrified by a darkening sky, this book provides not only a history of tornado research, but a vivid look into the origin of the storms. 67 color illustrations.

Short writings.

One of the earliest sources of humanity's religious impulse was severe weather, which ancient peoples attributed to the wrath of storm gods. Enlightenment thinkers derided such beliefs as superstition and predicted they would pass away as humans became more scientifically and theologically sophisticated. But in America, scientific and theological hubris came face-to-face with the tornado, nature's most violent windstorm. Striking the United States more than any other nation, tornadoes have consistently defied scientists' efforts to unlock their secrets. Meteorologists now acknowledge that even the most powerful computers will likely never be able to predict a tornado's precise path. Similarly, tornadoes have repeatedly brought Americans to the outer limits of theology, drawing them into the vortex of such mysteries as how to reconcile suffering with a loving God and whether there is underlying purpose or randomness in the universe. In this groundbreaking history, Peter Thuesen captures the harrowing drama of tornadoes, as clergy, theologians, meteorologists, and ordinary citizens struggle to make sense of these death-dealing tempests. He argues that, in the tornado, Americans experience something that is at once culturally peculiar (the indigenous storm of the national imagination) and religiously primal (the sense of awe before an unpredictable and mysterious power). He also shows that, in an era of climate change, the weather raises the issue of society's complicity in natural disasters. In the whirlwind, Americans confront the question of their own destiny-how much is self-determined and how much is beyond human understanding or control.

The author profiles real tornadoes and severe weather patterns over six thousand miles of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, known as Tornado Alley.

Join a brother and sister and their crazy scientist father as they chase tornadoes to learn about these dangerous storms. Includes facts about science , history, storm chasing and more.

Veteran journalist Mathis has produced a compulsively readable account of one of the most terrible tornadoes in history--a mile-wide F5 twister--and the extraordinary people who kept it from becoming the deadliest.

On May 20th, 2013, one of the worst tornadoes on record landed a direct hit on Moore, Oklahoma. This is the suspenseful tale of human courage in the face of natural disaster.

With 16 pages of black-and-white illustrations In Storm Kings, Lee Sandlin retraces America's fascination and unique relationship to tornadoes and the weather. From Ben Franklin's early experiments, to "the great storm debates" of the nineteenth century, to heartland life in the early twentieth century, Sandlin shows how tornado chasing helped foster the birth of meteorology, recreating with vivid descriptions some of the most devastating storms in America's history. Drawing on memoirs, letters, eyewitness testimonies, and numerous archives, Sandlin brings to life the forgotten characters and scientists that changed a nation and how successive generations came to understand and finally coexist with the spiraling menace that could erase lives and whole towns in an instant.

ON THE EXOTIC ISLAND OF ST. ANN, NANCY SEARCHES FOR SECRETS BURIED IN THE PAST! Swimming, sailing, and snorkeling are all that Nancy, Bess, and Ned expect when they visit old friends at their nineteenth-century plantation, Sugar Moon. But when a strange man appears, brandishing a cutlass, and Nancy discovers traces of intruders, her curiosity is aroused. Soon she comes across a faded love letter with clues to the hiding place of a long-dead pirate's precious gift -- a fabulous emerald necklace. Many colorful island characters have a serious stake in finding the treasure, and Nancy barely escapes from their traps, on land and at sea. Then, just as Nancy locates the necklace, it's about to slip from her grasp forever!