When you grow up in the Carolinas, you get used to thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches. They’re so commonplace, most people seem to ignore them until the wind actually picks up and sirens blow. The National Weather Service is testing new messages (like,“You could be killed”), but I’m not waiting for the NWS. A couple of videos I saw this month are making me to think a bit differently about it.

This amazing footage from a NBC news helicopter in Dallas-Fort Worth, shows the recent tornado striking a truck terminal and throwing semi  trailers hundreds of feet in the air (1:00 mark).

And this video from a home security system in West Liberty, Kentucky, captured the effect of a twister as it ripped the siding off the house and disintegrated the neighbors’ storage buildings. Check out the tree rolling around the lawn after it was uprooted, and the backyard furniture bounding across the yard like tumbleweeds. Wow. The garage only stood for thirty seconds, and the whole event was over in sixty.

We aren’t amateur storm chasers by any means, but I admit there are times I’ve enjoyed the spectacle when maybe I should have been inside, instead.  These videos are not only good supplements for science class–and something the boys would find fascinating, to boot–, they offer an opportunity to talk about the need for discretion and judgment to complement our sons’ natural courage and daring!