june-2010

CHICAGO
Blowin’ in
the Wind
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM | JUNE 2010
dispatches
NOTES FROM ALL OVER
ONE SPRING MORNING on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive,
a long line forms under an unseasonably warm sun.
The Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) has just
CHASING STORMS ALONG LAKE MICHIGAN
opened a new exhibit, “Science Storms,” and it’s been
ILLUSTRATIONS BY GRAHAM ROUMIEU
drawing such crowds daily, rain or shine. At 9:30 a.m.
on the nose, a guard unlocks the doors, and the group—a
mixture of kids on fi eld trips and hard-core weather
afi cionados (they like to call themselves “weather
weenies”)—fi les into the 26,000-square-foot exhibit.
Patrons gather at an angled 20-foot disk covered in snowlike granules and are invited to trigger an avalanche.
A little farther along, visitors stand before a 30-foot wave tank and watch as a computerized control mechanism
whips up a custom tsunami.
Another line snakes to the entrance of a wind tunnel that generates an 80-mph breeze. “It’s basically simulating
the sustained strength of a Category One hurricane,” explains senior project manager Chris Wilson. “Of course, we
create a safe environment in which to experience it. There are no objects in the wind that are going to hit you.”
The exhibit’s main draw is a 40-foot-tall “tornado,” a vortex of swirling vapors that rise out of the fl oor and spin with
the velocity of an actual twister. The tornado is powered by four fans capable of moving over 100,000 cubic feet of air per
minute—which is a lot—and visitors can manipulate the vortex from a console. Dorothy Gale would be impressed.
“I’m not sure if it’s the largest manmade tornado,” says Dave Mosena, the president of MSI. “But it’s certainly the
largest interactive one. We want people’s jaws to drop to the fl oor, sure, but I think with tornadoes, which can be
very dangerous and destructive, the more people know, the safer they’ll be.”
A group of seventh graders from nearby Lincoln Park are gathered around the tornado.
“This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” says one boy.
“What’s that show where the people drive around like crazy?” a friend asks.
“Storm Chasers.”
“Oh yeah. It’s just like that.” —MIKE GUY
19