Who’s Surprised That I Ended Up Here?

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After lunch with Amber, guess where I went??? That’s right, the headquarters of the National Weather Service! Oh, come on…who’s surprised that I ended up here? Now, the NWS, while part of the University of Oklahoma, is also federal government. That means you can’t just walk in and take a tour. However, they did let me walk around the first floor and see a brief overview video of the headquarters and what happens on each floor. The only bad thing is that I never found out where their tornado shelter is. Pictured here, we have TOTO and Dorothy. TOTO is real; Dorothy was a prop for the movie Twister. TOTO means “Totable Tornado Observatory,” and it’s designed to be placed in the path of a tornado so scientific data can be gathered. These things help the National Weather Service understand what causes tornadoes to form so they can better anticipate them, which helps give advanced warning and saves lives. Dorothy was based on that equipment. This wasn’t my only weather-related stop along the way today…. PHOTOS: (Top left) TOTO, a device used to measure atmospheric readings in or near a tornado (Top right) Dorothy, the prop used in the movie Twister, based on TOTO (Bottom) The front of the National Weather Service office at the University of Oklahoma.