VHS: 14:47-18:58
DVD: Chapters 8 (towards the end), 9 and 10

Play Flickclip Here (Quicktime)

Summary of clip: Dorothy runs back home after she visits Professor Marvel. As she leaves, a tornado has touched down and is heading towards Dorothy’s house. The barn keepers let the animals go and take cover in a cellar with Dorothy’s aunt and uncle. As Dorothy enters the house, she is knocked unconscious by a loose shutter off of a window. She wakes up to find her house is uplifted in the eye of the tornado.

1. Suggested questions for students when viewing the clip:

a. What observations can you make on the different characteristics of the tornado?

b. How does the appearance of a tornado look? How are tornadoes influenced by certain weather conditions?

c. What level of a tornado would be classified as uplifting a house?

2. For a better understanding of tornado classification, show them an example of the Fujita scale and explain how the wind speeds are  determined and how the storm levels are differentiated and the type of damage expected from different storm levels. Explain how tornadoes can be called both twisters and cyclones.

3. Compare and contrast the extreme weather conditions of the tornado to a hurricane and how the wind speeds, damage and storm appearance are different. The Simpson’s clip “Hurricane Neddy” is a good and humorous introduction (with slight inconsistencies which can be pointed out) to hurricanes.

4. For comprehension of how storms are differentiated and classified, have the students write a newspaper article or create a weather broadcast for an extreme storm The students will choose a storm and a level of intensity for the storm and work on the article identifying wind speeds, classification, how the storm begins with specific weather conditions, and the type of damage associated with the particular level storm