ARTICLE-A-DAY™

Storms
7 Articles

Check articles you have read:

What Is Lightning?
108 words

Thunderstorm Safety
94 words

What Is a Tornado?
77 words

What Do Storm Chasers Do?

81 words

A Time of Dust Storms

210 words

SummerReads: Thunderstorms - "Thunder and Lightning" and

"Rain"
552 words

SummerReads: Thunderstorms - "Thunderstorms" and "Hot Air, Cold

Air"
425 words

Page 1 of 10 ReadWorks.org · © 2017 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2014
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What Is Lightning?

What Is Lightning?
By Rachelle Kreisman

Rain is falling . Sudde nly, you se e a flash. Zap! Lig htning hits a tre e . Ne xt you he ar a loud sound. What
is happe ning ?

Lig htning is e le ctricity. It forms in clouds during a storm. Lig htning can g o from cloud to cloud. It
can also strike the g round. Whe n that happe ns, lig htning take s the shorte st path. It hits tall
obje cts. It may hit building s or tre e s. It may also hit pe ople .

Lig htning is re ally hot. Whe n it trave ls, it he ats up the air. The ve ry hot air make s a loud noise . That
is the thunde r you he ar. Pe ople se e lig htning be fore the y he ar thunde r. Why? Lig ht trave ls more
quickly than sound.

Page 2 of 10 © 2014 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2014
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Thunderstorm Safety

Thunderstorm Safety
By Rachelle Kreisman

If you he ar thunde r, g o to a safe place . Thunde r me ans that lig htning is ne arby. Lig htning is
dang e rous. It can hurt pe ople .

What is a safe place ? Go inside a building , a house , or a car. If you are indoors, stay away from
windows. D o not take a bath or a showe r. D o not use a corde d te le phone .

What if you cannot g e t indoors? D o not g o ne ar wate r or me tal. Crouch down low unde r a g roup of
tre e s. Ne ve r stand ne ar the talle st tre e . Lig htning usually strike s the talle st thing s on the g round.

Page 3 of 10 © 2014 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2014
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What Is a Tornado?

What Is a Tornado?
By Susan LaBella

A tornado is a big windstorm. Tornado winds spin ve ry fast. The y ofte n make a long cloud that looks
a little like an ice cre am cone . It is calle d a funne l cloud.

Tornado winds can harm thing s on the g round. The y can bre ak tre e s. The y can harm building s. The y
can de stroy cars and boats.

If a tornado is coming , pe ople should g o to a base me nt or anothe r safe place . The y should stay
the re until the storm passe s.

Page 4 of 10 © 2014 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2014
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What Do Storm Chasers Do?

What Do Storm Chasers Do?

By Susan LaBella

Tornadoe s and hurricane s are big storms. The y bring strong winds that can hurt pe ople . The winds
can damag e tre e s, cars, and building s.

Storm chase rs are pe ople who watch the se storms close ly. The y drive to whe re a storm is taking
place . The y take picture s. The y use compute rs to follow the storm. The y g athe r we athe r
information.

Storm chase rs are care fully traine d to do the ir work. The y he lp us le arn more about the se kinds of
storms. The ir work also he lps more pe ople stay safe .

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© 2014
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A Time of Dust Storms

A Time of Dust Storms

By Linda Rug g ieri

A long time ag o, wind and dust cause d big proble ms in the Unite d State s. Giant clouds of dust
harme d pe ople , animals, and crops in the ce ntral part of the country. The are a be came known as
the D ust Bowl.

The proble m starte d whe n farme rs plante d more crops than the y could se ll. The ne xt ye ar, those
farme rs de cide d to le ave some land e mpty. The farme rs le t the ir cattle g raze the re , and the cattle
ate the g rass. Soon, nothing g re w on that land.

The n came a droug ht (D ROWT). A droug ht is a long pe riod without rain. Land be came ve ry dry. Grass
and crops bare ly g re w. Ve ry little was le ft to hold the soil in place .

At the same time , strong winds starte d blowing . The winds ble w laye rs of soil into the air. D ust
cove re d e ve rything .

Pe ople had to prote ct the mse lve s from the dust. Childre n wore masks and g og g le s whe n the y
walke d to school. The y use d the masks so the y would not bre athe in dust and g e t sick. Pe ople hung
we t she e ts ove r the ir windows to pre ve nt dust from blowing into the ir home s.

Finally, the rains re turne d. Farme rs could plant crops ag ain. The farme rs le arne d to plant in
diffe re nt place s to prote ct the soil. The y also plante d g rasse s to ke e p the soil in place .

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© 2010
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SummerReads: Thunderstorms - "Thunder and Lightning" and "Rain"

SummerReads: Thunderstorms - "Thunder and

Lightning" and "Rain"
By Alice Lee Fo lkins

T his text is pro vided co urtesy o f Elfrieda H. Hiebert and T extPro ject.

Thunder and Lightning

Taken by C. Clark. Released into the public domain by NOAA

Multiple cloud-to-ground lightning strikes captured in a time-lapse image near
Norman, Oklahoma, March 1978.

Summe r thunde rstorms can be e xciting to watch from inside a building . First, you se e dark clouds
g athe ring . Sudde nly, you se e a bolt of lig htning . The n you he ar the thunde r. Kabooom! Finally, you
se e a lot of rain coming down. It’s a g ood ide a to wait inside rathe r than to g o out during the storm.
The storm will probably be ove r in about an hour but it’s much safe r inside than out.

The brig ht bolt of lig htning you saw is re ally e le ctricity. It is the same e le ctricity that we use to
powe r our lig hts and TVs. The re is a lot of e ne rg y in a lig htning bolt, e noug h to powe r a lig ht bulb
for about 100 days. The Earth re ce ive s se ve ral hundre d millions of lig htning bolts e ach ye ar. This
many lig htning bolts add up to a vast amount of e ne rg y.

Pe ople usually he ar thunde r soon afte r the y se e a bolt of lig htning . You can use this fact to find out
how far you are from the storm. As soon as you se e a bolt of lig htning , start counting the se conds.
Whe n you he ar the thunde r, stop counting . Eve ry five se conds from the time you se e the lig htning
bolt until you he ar thunde r e quals about one mile . If you counte d 10 se conds, the n the thunde rstorm
is about 2 mile s away. If you se e lig htning but don’t he ar thunde r, it me ans that the thunde rstorm is
more than 12 mile s away. That’s too far to he ar the thunde r.

Page 7 of 10 © 2017 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2010 Elfrieda H. Hiebert. Some rights reserved. Used by Permission
 SummerReads: Thunderstorms - "Thunder and Lightning" and "Rain"

Rain

Taken by Marvin Nauman. Released into the

public domain by FEMA.
People wait to be rescued from flooding caused
by rain from a tropical storm in Kingfisher,
Oklahoma, August 2007.

You alre ady know that the wate r in lake s and rive rs come s from pre cipitation. Pre cipitation is any
form of wate r that falls from the sky such as rain and snow. A he avy rainfall can drop as much as two
inche s of rain pe r hour. How much wate r is that? Imag ine if some one built walls around a
football fie ld and g athe re d all of the rainwate r. If two inche s of rain fe ll in an hour, you would have
more than 70,000 g allons of wate r. That’s e noug h wate r for you to fill a bathtub e ve ry sing le day for
four ye ars!

That may se e m like a lot of wate r. But pe ople ne e d wate r for many othe r re asons than staying
cle an. We ne e d wate r to drink and cook. Crops and animals ne e d wate r too. All of this wate r come s
from pre cipitation like rain.

Of course , too much rain can cause proble ms. Floods happe n whe n rain doe sn’t have e noug h time
to flow into ne arby rive rs and lake s. One way to think about this is to obse rve what happe ns whe n
you le t wate r out of the bathtub. It take s time for all the wate r to le ave the tub be cause the drain is
too small for all the wate r to le ave at once .

Eve n whe n the re is flooding , rain is not lost. Rain that falls in one state can be store d in the lake s
and rive rs of anothe r state . Your ne xt g lass of wate r may come from rain that fe ll hundre ds of mile s
from your home .

Page 8 of 10 © 2017 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2010 Elfrieda H. Hiebert. Some rights reserved. Used by Permission
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© 2010
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SummerReads: Thunderstorms - "Thunderstorms" and "Hot Air, Cold Air"

SummerReads: Thunderstorms -
"Thunderstorms" and "Hot Air, Cold Air"
By Alice Lee Fo lkins

T his text is pro vided co urtesy o f Elfrieda H. Hiebert and T extPro ject.

Thunderstorms

Released into the public domain by Cremedia at

de.wikipedia.
Rain falls on a field in Germany during a storm in 2006.

For many pe ople around the world, summe r bring s thunde rstorms. Warm we t air and strong winds
he lp to cre ate thunde rstorms. But thunde rstorms don’t happe n in e ve ry part of the Unite d State s.
The state s along the Pacific Oce an don’t g e t as many thunde rstorms as the state s along the Gulf
of Me xico. Some are as of Florida have thunde rstorms once a day for most of the summe r!

The be st place to be during a thunde rstorm is inside a building . Lig htning from a thunde rstorm can
be ve ry dang e rous. Just be fore a thunde rstorm, the air may fe e l like the re is e le ctricity in it. Whe n
pe ople start fe e ling e le ctricity in the air, the y know a thunde rstorm is on the way. Pe ople start
he ading inside building s so the y can be safe during a thunde rstorm.

So how are thunde rstorms cre ate d? You can re ad about it he re without g e tting we t!

Hot Air, Cold Air

Page 9 of 10 © 2017 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2010 Elfrieda H. Hiebert. Some rights reserved. Used by Permission
 SummerReads: Thunderstorms - "Thunderstorms" and "Hot Air, Cold Air"

© 2004 by John Kerstholt

A rolling thunderstorm cloud arrives over Enschede,
The Netherlands, July 2004

Part of what make s summe rs so hot is also what cause s thunde rstorms. As he at from the sun be ats
down on Earth, the he at e vaporate s some of the wate r in lake s and oce ans. The e vaporate d wate r
stays in the air. This e vaporate d wate r make s the air fe e l he avy and humid. Humid air is what
make s you fe e l hot and sticky during the summe r.

Warm humid air usually doe s not stay in one place . The wind can move it hig he r in the sky whe re it
will cool off. Whe n warm humid air cools, it forms clouds. As more wate r is move d from lake s and
oce ans to the air, the clouds g e t big g e r and big g e r.

In summe r, the air ne ar the g round is hotte r than it is during othe r se asons of the ye ar. Whe n this
hot air mixe s with cool air from anothe r are a, the re will be chang e s in the we athe r. Gre ate r
diffe re nce s be twe e n the te mpe rature s of the hot and cold air will cause g re ate r chang e s in the
we athe r. Imag ine putting an ice cube in a warm drink. As soon as the ice hits the warm drink, it will
crack and pop. But, if you put the ice cube in a cool drink, it will not crack or pop as much. Whe n
warme r and coole r clouds g e t close to one anothe r, the re may be some popping and cracking as
the we athe r chang e s. The re may be more clouds or storms. A thunde rstorm may be on its way.

Page 10 of 10 © 2017 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2010 Elfrieda H. Hiebert. Some rights reserved. Used by Permission