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 Being Safe in a Thunderstorm

Being Safe in a Thunderstorm
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 3 to 4
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   2.83

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    showers, mass, lowest, thunderstorm, thunder, dangerous, against, power, storm, electric, minutes, upward, lines, nearby, sounds, patter

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Being Safe in a Thunderstorm
By Cindy Grigg 		  
1     Sally and her friends were playing outside. The day was sunny and hot. Soon the sky grew dark. The wind began blowing hard. The leaves on the trees made a rustling noise. The treetops tossed from side to side. Sally's mom came outside. "Come inside!" she called. "A storm is coming!"
 
2     Sally and her friends ran into the house. Soon, they heard the first patter of raindrops against the windows. Then they heard thunder! It was loud! Sally saw lightning flash outside the windows.
 
3     "Mom, why did it storm?" Sally asked. "It was nice outside just a little while ago!"
 
4     "Storms can happen fast," her mom said. She began to explain what causes storms.
 
5     She said that the air here was warm and moist. There was a lot of water drops in the air, so tiny that we couldn't see them. Warm air rises upward. Then a mass of colder air moves in. The differences in temperature make wind. Large clouds form. Water drops inside the clouds begin to fall when they get too heavy. "That's what made it rain," Sally's mom explained.
 
6     The lightning, she said, was caused by electric charges in the clouds. When the electric charges build up, they jump from one cloud to another. Sometimes they jump from a cloud to the ground. When they jump, we see lightning. After we see the flash of lightning, we hear the sound of thunder.
 
7     "Are storms dangerous?" asked Sally.
 
8     "Yes, they can be," said Sally's mom. "That's why I called you all to come inside. It's important to stay away from trees and water during a thunderstorm," she said.
 
9     Joey asked, "Can we play on the computer, please, Mrs. Brown?"

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