A tornado beckons inside the Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park (Photo by Frank Sabatini Jr.)

Did You Know…

By Frank Sabatini Jr.

…that you can touch a tornado inside the lobby of the Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park?

Swirling water vapors that form a vortex are among a few installations that came with the museum’s recent $5.6 million renovation. The simulated tornado, which rises about four feet from its circular base, encourages visitors to either blow on it or insert a hand into it. By doing so, the funnel cloud instantly breaks apart. But with the help of its surrounding air currents, the tornado quickly reorganizes.

The exhibit basically shows how friction from buildings, hills, and side winds can weaken and disrupt the structure of real-life tornadoes.

Conversely, we get to see how tornadoes naturally rebuild themselves when the right atmospheric elements come back into play—those being heat, moisture, and wind shear. In addition, we learned that tornadoes always organize themselves from the ground up.

Among the science enthusiasts we found interacting with the free exhibit, most said they hope that this “tabletop” tornado is the coziest they will ever get to an actual funnel cloud.