The Night of the Storm           

By Kayla Allen

It was about ten thirty at night and my mom came and woke me up and told me to get my shoes on, so I did. I went into the living room and asked her what was going on. She told me that a tornado was coming. She also said it was headed our way. Earlier, when I went to bed, the sky was clear.

Next, I started to panic, because I have never been in or around a tornado. I didn't know what to grab and take down to the cellar. My mom sat me down and told me to get ahold of myself. Then I went outside to the porch to look at the sky. The sky was turning pitch black. Then, all of a sudden, everything turned quiet and my dog started barking. Then the rain started to pour down.

When we looked at the news, it had called the tornado off. It kept raining, but we didn't get a tornado that night. And that was the night that the storm hit. 
 

The Ice Storm      

By Zac Buchanan 

About two years ago we had a very strange weather pattern. It was almost two or three days before Christmas and we were just about to get out of school for our Christmas vacation when a storm to remember hit us. It was time to go to bed and sleet started to come down. 

By the time I woke up, the trees were already covered with ice. Mom and Dad had the day off because there was no way that they could have safely made it to work. There was a light dusting of snow over the ice, which was three or four inches thick. I woke up early because I didn't know that school would be cancelled. When I looked outside, I understood why school was cancelled. I got on my snow clothes and went sledding for the rest of the morning. The sun never came out, so I knew there would be plenty of time to play in the snow later. When I came in, there was already some hot chocolate waiting for me. That is one of the reasons that I like it when the snow is bad enough for my parents to stay home. The next day I was outside for most of the day again. 

A couple of days later was Christmas. My parents had those days off. The snow and ice started to pack down and it was even more dangerous than when it first started. People could hardly walk up a little slope in their yard before they would start to slip. Cars had a rough time getting anywhere unless it was cleared away. That was a storm to remember.
 

One Storm That Changed My Life           

By Reagan A Chamberlain

On one hot summer day, we were outside playing basketball, and the wind started blowing really hard. We kept on playing though. 

It started to rain, so we went inside. I turned on the TV to see if there was anything good to watch, when I saw the weather service. I called my mother into the room with me, and we watched it. It said that there was a really bad storm heading our way. 

We live in an underground house, so I felt safe. I called my grandma and grandpa's, because they don't live in an underground house. I called them and had them come over. They came over, and they were kind of scared. 

I heard a loud noise. My mother told me that everything was going to be okay. After the storm passed, I walked outside, and looked up to the sky.  I saw the dark clouds disappearing, and the sky became calm. 

I knew then that I would like to be a person who studies the weather. That was a year or so ago, and things have changed. I still am scared of storms and I still want to study them.
 

The Unusual Weather            

By Jeremy M Cornelison

It was raining real hard and fast. We closed the windows and we brought the dogs in. When we left, the wind was blowing hard and fast and the sky was as dark as the night. The dogs were barking and my dog jumped the fence. We got in the car and went to my uncle and aunt's house. We went to the cellar and listened to the radio as we played games.

After the storm was over, we went to our house and found the radio's antenna had broken off the house. We left the house and went to my grandparents' house. The martin house was laying on the ground. Since the day of the storm, we have had many storms. But none of them was like the one we had that day. We had a storm not too long ago, but it was nothing compared to that storm!
 

When the Water Flooded the Road       

By Mark Davis

It was almost dark around 4 o'clock. It started to rain. It rained so hard it flooded the road. The water was backing up on a little hill on the road. Just a few days ago, my dad and I had replanted some shrubs that were too big to be by the porch. One was by the road and the other was up in the yard. The water was high (about 3 inches deep) and was running over the roots of the bushes. Then, after the water gets off the road, it runs into our ponds. The ponds were so full the water was running over the tops of the ponds.

After it stopped raining, we drove down to the bridge. It was running over it. The water went back down to where the road wasn't flooded in 2 hours. It was really cool.
 

The Storm              

By Donny Lamb

It was in 1998 and it was tornado season and there were tornado watches and warnings all over Douglas County. There was a report that there was a tornado touchdown near our house, so I went outside to see what was happening. 

When I got outside, the wind was blowing so hard that I couldn't hardly keep my balance. Things were flying through the air and trees were swaying back and forth with the force of the wind. It kept getting worse, so we went to our next door neighbors' house for shelter.

When we were on the road to my neighbors' house, my mom said that it was hard to keep the car on the road. When we got there, we went inside to talk to the neighbor. He said to wait a while to let it bypass us. Finally, it did, and we went home and debris was all over the place.
 

My Weather Experience       

By Tina Long

Hi. My name is Tina and my dad works here in Douglas County for the Emergency Management Agency. When my dad hears about bad weather coming, he takes my brother and me with him to look at the sky and determine how the weather is going to be. He also checks in with the weather service to let them know that he is going to report in any damage or what kind of weather is in any certain area. 

Recently, my dad was reporting in with the weather service that there was dime-sized hail.  A few minutes later, the radios in my dad's van had reported the dime-sized hail in Douglas County over Dogwood Hill. All of a sudden, it all stopped. It was pretty scary. We decided to drive back the way we came. So we turned around and we saw the path of a tornado that had just been through there right after we left. There were trees everywhere and all kinds of debris everywhere. There wasn't a single tree standing where the tornado had hit its path. I was so glad that we had just missed it.
 

Unusual Weather           

By Stacey Sanders

Last summer, my dad was on the bus route, and as he was driving, he saw a funnel cloud that flew over him and disappeared. He didn't even know what it was. When I got home from school, I saw it head straight for me. I freaked out. I called my dad on the cellular phone, and he said he saw it fly over his bus. My dad left his Chevy Camaro out, and of course, it almost hailed on it.

That night there were 3 tornadoes that headed straight for us. They disappeared before they reached us. Then everything died down. All of the tornadoes were near my house. The tornadoes were near Squires. I almost live in Squires.

That night, my brother came down and thought I was crazy for being so frantic. I am so scared of tornadoes. That is just the way I am.
 

Record Breaking Winter       

By Andrew Wallace

I am going to tell you about the very, very cold winter snowstorm.  The temperature got as low as -0 degrees F. Some days it was so cold that we had to stay inside the whole day. That winter set a record for Douglas County. 

In December there was 5.5 inches of sleet and snow only in a few days! In January we got 1.25 inches or rain on the 28th. And in February we got 1.1 inches of rain on the 24th.

Our lowest temperature was on December 22. The temperature was -2.4 Degrees F. And the highest temperature was on January 6. The temperature was 56.3 Degrees F. 

You may think that this record-breaking winter happened a long time ago, but in fact it happened in the year 2000!

I can't remember the last time it was this cold. My parents can't remember this either! It snowed a lot too.

But in Thornfield there was more ice than snow. It was just as cold there as it was here too! When I went down to the farm with my dad in Thornfield, a cow gave birth in the night. The calf was frozen to the ground when we found it. But it was alive! We dried off the calf and took the calf to the barn. We tried to get the mother to follow us, but the stupid cow didn't follow us, so we had to chase her back to the barn. The calf gradually stood up, but it died later. It shows how the cold can kill.

But thankfully the dreadful winter is now over!  So I hope that the next winter is not as bad.