Storm Kings
Popular Science|July - August 2017

Creating fearsome weather, indoors.

Kevin Gray
Storm Kings

ON AUGUST DAYS IN THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE, THE TROPICAL heat steam-cooks everything. UPS drivers slap wet bandannas to their foreheads. Pirate-themed mini golf parks, shimmering like mirages, lay deserted. But a few miles from the Gulf motels and sandy beach malls, engineers like Kirk Parrish face the worst snowstorms of their lives. Sheathed in parkas, they cold-start their pickups and drive straight into stinging, minus-40-degree whiteout blizzards. Indoors.

“It’s absolutely crazy seeing an indoor snowstorm,” says Parrish, a diesel engineer at Ford Motor Company whose job is to make sure your F-150 can start and run in Prudhoe Bay extremes. To prove it can, and tweak things if it can’t, he treks each summer to the McKinley Climatic Laboratory at Elgin Air Force Base. Sprawled over several buildings, the lab is the largest indoor-weather testing facility in the world and can conjure nearly any meteorological hazard: ice storms, corrosive fog, driving rains (up to 27  inches per hour), 165-degree heat, jungle humidity, and 40-mile-per-hour sandstorms.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July - August 2017-Ausgabe von Popular Science.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July - August 2017-Ausgabe von Popular Science.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

WEITERE ARTIKEL AUS POPULAR SCIENCEAlle anzeigen
Popular Science

They Might Be Giants

A photographer-and-ecologist team are on a mission to document the forests’ mightiest members.

time-read
3 Minuten  |
Winter 2020
Popular Science

Droplet Stoppers

Covid-19 made face masks a crucial part of every outfit, and we’re likely to don them in the future when we feel ill. Fortunately, there’s a style for every need.

time-read
1 min  |
Winter 2020
Popular Science

Landing a Lifeline

For those whose livelihood depends on the ocean, a covid-spurred interruption in the seafood market might speed progress toward a more sustainable future—for them and for fish.

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
Winter 2020
Headtrip – Your brain on video chat
Popular Science

Headtrip – Your brain on video chat

Dating, Catching up with family, and going to happy hour are best in person.

time-read
1 min  |
Winter 2020
Behind The Cover
Popular Science

Behind The Cover

Butterflies may seem delicate, but they are surprisingly tough.

time-read
1 min  |
Winter 2020
Tales From the Field – A cold one on mars
Popular Science

Tales From the Field – A cold one on mars

Kellie Gerardi, bioastronautics researcher at the International Institute for Austronautical Science

time-read
1 min  |
Winter 2020
Popular Science

The Needs Of The Few

Designing with the marginalized in mind can improve all of out lives.

time-read
6 Minuten  |
Winter 2020
Popular Science

Life On The Line

On the Western edge of Borneo, a novel conservation-minded health-care model could provide the world with a blueprint to stop next pandemic before it starts.

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
Winter 2020
waste watchers
Popular Science

waste watchers

YOU CAN TURN FOOD SCRAPS INTO FERTILIZER IN ALMOST ANY CONTAINER. THESE BINS USE THEIR OWN METHODS TO ENCOURAGE THE PROCESS, BUT BOTH KEEP BUGS AND STINK AT BAY.

time-read
1 min  |
Winter 2020
why can't i forget how to ride a bike?
Popular Science

why can't i forget how to ride a bike?

LEARNING TO PEDAL IS NO EASY FEAT.

time-read
1 min  |
Winter 2020