Word: cooks
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
While spiking hailstorms, Cook studied them in an amateur way. "Some of those storms," he says, "had a heck of a lot more muscle than others. I couldn't figure out why." To find out more about clouds, he went to a meteorological meeting at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College and had a long talk with three men from the Kansas City weather bureau. One of these was Donald C. House, supervising forecaster of SELS (Severe Local Storm Warning Center), which tries to decide what clouds are likely to lash the ground with destructive twisters. After the talk...
...Cook's specially equipped Mustang was ready for this year's tornado season, and he began his hunting on April 15. He carries 500 lbs. of weather instruments and a radio altimeter. A movie camera takes continuous pictures of the airplane's flying instruments. Whenever he thinks it worthwhile, Cook talks, in his calm drawl, to a tape recorder...
...Choppy. Cook's tape recordings do not sound like a man who is flying close to the most violent weather that nature can serve up. "It's getting awfully hard to see out here," he remarks calmly. "Can't see very much ahead. It's getting a little bit choppy. Beginning to look pretty green.'' Cook explains that "looking green" means seeing hail in the heart of the cloud...
...When Cook comes back from the storm clouds, he has a talk with the weathermen at Kansas City, and the records of his instruments are analyzed. The purpose of all this, explains Forecaster House, is to learn more about the structure of clouds that generate tornadoes...
Last year SELS correctly anticipated 32% of the tornadoes and scored near misses on another 30%. This season its tornado forecasts are right about half the time, and the information brought to earth by Cook (which will not be used in predictions until next year) should help to raise the score toward the Weather Bureau's goal of eight...