Henry and the ElementsBy Giuliana Vargas

And AJ Rothwell

There once was a man who loved to chase tornadoes. His name was Henry and he loved science, ever since he was a little boy. He dreamed of becoming a tornado watcher. Henry loved every about weather and especially tornadoes every since he was a child. He was interested most of of all about tornadoes, is that they are huge spinning masses of wind. That lasts for only a few minutes. As a result Henry ended up doing it, for his career. Henry studied in Louisiana for meteorology, but had a profound passion and love for filmmaking. He would jump in his van and go to the tornado sightings. The second the news said there was one. But there was this one tornado, it was the weirdest one yet and colorful (rainbow), but it would be much more powerful than he could have ever expected.

Henry had been searching and driving looking for the rainbow tornado. It began to get dark. The sun was setting and he was just about to give up. When the large rainbow tornado suddenly appeared in front of him. He instantly speed towards it.

Henry then realized this was not safe. He then got out of his car to a least film the beautiful tornado. After coming too close to the beautiful tornado. He decided to get back into the car. And to drive further back and to film at a safer distance. Henry quickly jumped back into his car. As he was trying to drive and filming towards the large rainbow tornado. Henry was swept up into the air. Henry swirled, spinned, and was tossed in the air by the tornado. Henry was flying the van hit his head. And Henry did not have his seatbelt on, so tumbled inside his van. Henry hit one of the side doors so hard, that it sprung open. Henry then landed on the ground and was squashed by 5 cows then went unconscious (somehow he survived).

When he woke up he was on top of a large blue flower, in a meadow with many flowers.. Henry did not know where he was and walked around the flower. Admiring the many bright colors. As Henry was walking he unexpectedly stumbled and fell of the flower landing in a bed of dirt. “Ooff!” Said Henry with pain. And wiped cleaned himself up. When Henry opened his eyes, to see 3 circular things looking at him. “Well Hello There!” Said the gray one.

Henry was surprised, scared, and still in very much pain, to see these creatures. “Where am I?” Said Henry with a perplexed voice. “How did you get here?” Said the a blue object. “Yeah what are you doing here?” Said the green one asking, Henry. “I don't know you tell me?” Said Henry to the blue object. “What are you guys anyways?” Asked Henry to the odd shaped talking objects asking him questions. “We are elements!”, “And aren't you a human?” All the elements, said together. “Yes, of course I am a human!” Respond Henry. “Well I have never seen one so small before. Just look at it, its so tiny!” Laughed the elements at Henry.” Well I never seen element so small before, we are molecular.” Laughed the element at Henry again. Henry began to cry and wonder, when he would change back into the size of a human again. And be able to leave this odd land.

The group elements friends saw and realized that Henry needed a friend. And was very confused. The elements felt bad for beginning, so rude and unkind to Henry that they decided to cheer him up! “Hey don’t cry. We are sorry for beginning so rude and unkind.” Said the elements. “Hey what did you say your name was again?” Said the elements. “My name is Henry” The grey element, then responded and said, “My name is Carl short for Carbon.

“And my name is Oakley and that is short for Oxygen.” Said the girl element.

“I am Noah the Nitrogen element.” “Is there anything we can help you with to feel better?” Said Noah to Henry.

“I am not sure” Responded Henry. “Well Noah, Carl and I are going on an adventure!” Said Oakley. “We want to experience weather in its fullest! And learn everything we can.” Said Oakley. “You can join us if you would like Henry.” Henry knew that, what had happened to him was very strange. So decide why not, why not go along with the elements on their journey.

"So where are we going to go?" Asked Henry. "WE have not gotten to the part in our plan yet." Said Oakley. "Well I have always wanted and dreamed of going into space." Said Carl to his friends. "That a great idea!" Respond Oakley. "I want to go to space that would be fun!" Said Noah. "Do want to go to space, with us Henry?" Asked Oakley. "Well I guess this day can't get anymore crazier." Responded Henry.On their way Henry thought it was only right if he asked some questions.

"Wait a minute, how exactly are we going to get into space?" "And how are we going to reach space?" Asked Henry.

"Well I don't know, just go with the flow."" Carl said."Yeah don't stress about, we will figure something out." Said Noah.

As they all walked side by side. Henry was experiencing life in a different perspective. The flowers he once stepped on were now as tall as skyscrapers. When looked up, at the sky the trees looked endless to him.

we are heading to the launch station for other atoms going into space

They continued walking threw the meadow of flowers. Henry began to learn more, about the other elements and began, to feel more comfortable around them. They told stories of what they thought they would expected being in space. As the hours passed. Henry talking and continued giving them knowledge about our planet.

After traveling many hours they encountered a ocean that was very large and could not be passed by swimming. "Where to Now?" said Noah. "Well telling from these ocean currents we should be able to- CHOP! CHOP! CHOP! CHOP! CHOP! CHOP! a loud noise rang."What is that!" yelled Oakley.

Everyone turned their around to look at the large helicopter landing on the helipad. "It's a Helicopter!" Henry yelled over the loud chopping of the helicopter. "Lets go we can check it out!" Henry jumped in and found out that the helicopter was heading for Orlando Florida. "Hey just our luck! We can see the rockets at the space station!!!" Said Henry to the element with joy. Wondering what a rocket was, Noah jumped inside the helicopter. "No!!!" Everyone yelled and jumped in to save him but it was too late by the time they found him they were high up in the air. "Well we wanted to go here anyway right?" said Henry.

Henry? What are ocean currents, the ones you were talking about earlier? Before the CHOP, CHOP, CHOP noise came." said Carl.

"Oh, Ocean Currents are the constant movement of water in the oceans that move objects across the ocean. So if we were to swim against the currents it would be much more difficult compared to swimming with the current." explained Henry.

Carl nodded and looked outside. "Sometimes I wonder what things are out in the sky." said Carl"Well, I love science! Also I work as a meteorologist, you're asking the right person!" As helicopter began to rise up into the air.

"There are tons of things in the sky Carl! TONS! They all have an impact on life too. Thats what makes earth so interesting!" shouted out Henry, because of how astonished he was that Carl didn't know anything about the earth.

"Where do I start... Oh I know! Well there, is this thing called convection and it creates heat through air and it spreads. With convection currents which is the explanation of, when hot air cools in the higher areas of the atmosphere. So it, becomes more dense causing it, to lower and heat up, where it becomes less dense causing it to rize. Furthermore to create an endless motion.

There's also these things called fronts which are movements of air flow through the sky. Cold fronts are formed when cold air sinks under warm air bring clear dry cold air to us. Warm Fronts are formed when warm air is squeezed up and away from the cold air lowering to create moist warm humid air. Occluded fronts are when the two airs (cold and warm) meet causing stormy windy cold air that can create tornadoes and hurricanes/cyclones. Those can get pretty scary. And which might be the reason why I am here.

"Why are hurricanes so scary?" Asked Oakley to Henry. Hurricanes aren't as much scary if you are not prepared or have knowledge about them in a situation. Scientifically hurricanes Form over warm oceans waters.The source of energy for a hurricane is water vapor which is evaporated from the ocean surface. Hurricanes are in intense low pressure.

"Thats so cool tell us more!" Said the Elements to Henry. Lets talk about wind currents then. The energy that blows and moves wind originates with the sun, which heats then, the Earth unevenly. Creating and causing warm spots and cool spots. And can be known as an area of sea breezes and land breezes.Sea breezes, on sunny afternoons is air that is above the land surface and is heated by radiation from the Sun. It then expands and begins to further rise, lighter than the surrounding air. The rising air is replaced, then cooler air is drawn in from above the surface of the sea. For Land breezes the process is know the other way around. Here I will explain to you guys. Land breezes happens at night when the land cools off much more faster than the sea. In this case, it is air above the warmer surface water that is heated and rises, pulling in air from the cooler land surface.

The sun began to set as Henry was still explaining the interesting science of earth to the elements. Global Patterns are very similar forces they create global wind patterns that affect our climate. The tropics, are always hot and humid. Air is rising and here and spreads north and south, high above the land. Lower down, air is pulled in from the north and south.This is when the Coriolis effect comes in action. The Coriolis effect, affects prevailing winds and the rotation of storms The Earth's rotation,/circular shape makes moving air masses curve, so that the winds converging on the Equator come from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere. These winds are called the trade winds. I can't believe as an element of the earth I never knew any of this!" Said Carl. and Noah/ Oakley agreed.

Also about global wind patterns the equator receives the Sun's direct rays. THis is where air is heated and rises, leaving low pressure areas behind. Moving to estimated amount of thirty degrees north and south of the equator. The warm air from the equator begins to cool and sink. Between thirty degrees latitude and the equator, most of the cooling sinking air moves back to the equator.

Along with the global wind patterns more in depth you have the doldrums, prevailing westerlies, and the polar easterlies.

The doldrums is an area of calm weather. The trade winds coming from the south and the north meet near the equator. These converging trade winds produce general upward winds as they are heated, so there are no steady surface winds.

Between thirty and sixty degrees latitude, the winds that move toward the poles appear to curve to the east. Because winds are named from the direction in which they originate, these winds are called prevailing westerlies.

"What are the polar easterlies, can you explain those?" Asked Oakley Yes I was just getting to that Oakley. polar easterlies to reduce upward motion. The polar easterlies form when the atmosphere over the poles cools. This cool air then sinks and spreads over the surface. As the air flows away from the poles, it is turned to the west by the Coriolis effect. Again, because these winds begin in the east, they are called easterlies.

High pressure is . In some places highs are referred to as anticyclones. These move clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern due to the Coriolis Effect. Anticyclones are when cool air falls, it warms up, so it is relative humid drops.

Low pressure is known as a wet climate. Also low pressure can cause high winds, warm air, and atmospheric lifting. Because of this, lows normally produce clouds, precipitation, and other bad weather such as tropical storms and cyclones.

Cyclones is an area of relatively low air pressure. A cyclone spins in a counter clockwise motion. As air rises in a cyclone the air cools, forming clouds precipitation.

Isobars are contoured lines of constant atmospheric pressure and isotherms are contoured lines of constant temperature.

As there began a light sprinkling of raindrops hitting the windows and roof of the helicopter. Henry decide to talk about precipitation and the different types of precipitation. Which are the five major types of precipitation are rain, snow, sleet, hail, and freezing rain. The elements wonder about how Henry got to be so small so he explain how he was chasing a tornado and trying to film it and the next thing he knows is meeting the three kind elements. "Why were you filming?" The elements asked. Because I was wanting to capture a moment in mother nature.

A modern meteorologists wouldn't be nearly so accurate without numerical forecasting, which uses mathematical equations to predict the weather. Such forecasting requires powerful computers and lots of observational data collected from land, sea and air. A single weather station would never be able to collect so much information. Instead, thousands of stations across the world and connected.

Many clouds float in the sky as you know and there are many different types. Some are thin and wispy like cirrus clouds. Others are large puffy and white like cumulus clouds. And some are stormy and gray that will bring rain to the ground, like stratus and cumulinimbus. They all do bring rain to earth at some point because they are made out of gas water. The way they become liquid is by passing the dew point which is the point in which water vapor turns into liquid water If it is above the dew point then it is still a gas if it is at the dew point or below it is liquid water." said Henry a little too fast. "Um... What i-" Carl began, but didn't get a chance to finish when Henry said. "I'll answer your questions tomorrow lets go to bed." Henry said as he yawned and walked to a pillow and blanket to rest on.

In the morning they got off the helicopter and went to the rocket. "This is going to be so much fun!" said Noah, excited to be on a real rocket.Lift Off In 10, 9, 8, 7, "Here we go!" said Oakley. 4, 3, 2, 1, Lift Off!

The rocket took off and in no time they were in space. They were out in space and everything was awesome! When all of a sudden the rocket was going straight for the sun! The gravitational force of the sun was pulling the rocket towards it. The energy of the sun was so powerful, because of its great heat.

The sun has so much energy it can heat up the earth from 100,000s of miles away from it. Using the infrared heat it creates heat needed to survive but since it gives so much the earth's atmosphere (the atmosphere is the lair of gas surrounding earth protecting us from outside objects and heat that is not needed) has to reflect and give away most of the energy. So with the great energy of the sun it was certain death if you were heading straight at it. Then as right as the rocket blew up. Henry woke up next to his van with his partner right next to him wondering if he was ok. It was night time. His co-worker saw Henry leave to film and capture the tornadoes in action, but henry never came back. His friend for work was worried so he drove off to look for Henry, because he was so worried.

Was it all a dream... Or was it? Henry along with his co-worker drove back home and Henry went to bed wondering and confuzed. The next day went back to work as usually, as Henry was using his microscope, a tool that is used by scientists to look at tiny things, studying a sample of a meteorite when he saw 3 tiny specks on it. Sure enough it was Oakley, Noah, and Carl waving

back at him.

THE END