Nancy Mathis

On May 3, 1999, Oklahoma saw multiple tornadoes, including one of the biggest to hit a city. All the years leading up to it, though, had meteorologists, most notably Ted Fujita (Mr. Tornado), studying tornadoes. This helped with warnings (although for a long time in history until the 1950s (after another deadly tornado in 1947), weather forecasters were not even allowed to say the word “tornado”!) that could help people take cover. The book not only looks at the tornado in 1999 (and the one in 1947), but also looks at the history of weather forecasting – with a focus on tornadoes – and at the life of Ted Fujita (who created the Fujita scale).

It got a bit bogged down in the history at the start of the book (but, I was also having trouble finding larger chunks of time to read, which can help me focus), but it got better as the book went on. Of course, when we hit the 1999 tornado, no question – this was the best part of the book. I still found the rest quite interesting, though… (más)