Exploration Place brings ‘Wild Weather’ to Wichita with its newest traveling exhibit
Tornadoes. Blizzards. Thunderstorms. Heat waves.
Kansas is no stranger to violent weather, which is why showcasing an exhibit on extreme weather seemed to be a natural for Exploration Place.
“We’re in Tornado Alley. Right there – boom, wild weather,” said Christina Bluml, director of marketing for Exploration Place.
The national traveling exhibit Wild Weather opens Saturday and runs through the first Sunday in January.
“Many Kansans are fascinated with weather,” Bluml said. “You can’t not be when you’re from here.”
Weather is “so fascinating and so varied,” she said. “This is just the perfect thing” for the museum to highlight.
Visitors won’t just learn more about how wild weather happens, they’ll be able to get a taste of what it’s like to:
▪ Fly through a hurricane
▪ Swirl along a tornado’s path
▪ Witness a raging winter storm
▪ Map a deluge of lightning strikes during a thunderstorm
▪ Forecast a potential tornado outbreak
“We have lots of interactive exhibits showing the science behind severe weather,” Bluml said.
Visitors will even have the opportunity to try their skills at forecasting a tornado and learn more about how different kinds of severe weather develop.
“It’s a great exhibit to learn the fine details” about different kinds of violent weather, she said.
The exhibit will include footage of significant tornadoes, but local meteorologists and photographers from around Kansas will also show images and videos of violent weather.
The exhibit will feature severe weather images shot by renowned storm chaser and severe weather photographer Jim Reed, a former resident of Wichita, and – weather permitting, naturally – an appearance at a special event for donors by Reed Timmer, who has become a celebrity chasing storms and now chronicles violent weather for The Weather Channel.
“Kansas has played such an invaluable role in my 30-year weather photography career,” Reed said in an electronic response to questions. “It all started for me here in Wichita and I will always be grateful.”
Between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. opening day, visitors can interact with members of groups such as the American Red Cross, the Cowley Storm Chasers, K-9 Search and Rescue of Kansas, LifeSave Transport and the National Weather Service. George Lawson, who has tracked severe weather for KFDI for decades, also will be on hand.
Wichita Eagle photographer Travis Heying and television meteorologists Lisa Teachman, Frank Waugh and Mark Larson are among those scheduled to make live presentations during the exhibit’s run, providing local flavor for the exhibit.
Also set to make an appearance is Mike Umscheid, the National Weather Service meteorologist who issued one of the nation’s first “tornado emergency” warnings shortly before Greensburg was wiped away by a massive tornado on May 4, 2007, and is an accomplished storm chaser in his own right.
Umscheid is set to appear at 1:30 p.m Oct. 23 during a Senior Wednesday event in Exploration Place’s Kemper Creative Learning Studio. Admission to that event, designed for those 55 and older, is $4.
Wild Weather
When: Traveling exhibit Saturday through Jan. 5.
Where: Exploration Place, 300 N. McLean Blvd.
Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays.
Admission: Ages 12-64, $10.50; seniors ages 65 and older, $9; youth, ages 3-11, $7. Admission is free for members and children 2 and younger.
More info: 316-660-0600, exploration.org
This story was originally published September 27, 2019 at 12:00 AM.