Image courtesy of CNET.com.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was a children’s novel written by L. Frank Baum and published in May of 1900.  In 1902, it became a popular Broadway musical and in 1939, it was brought to film.  Some 74 years after the movie, people are still talking about its creativity.  Future generations are finding ways to re-create the story.  This year, it is being done by using Legos.

12 Lego builders turned The Wizard of Oz into a 3D plastic classic that includes almost every scene in the film; even a rotating tornado.

The collaborators from VirtualUG presented their work at Brickworld 2013 Chicago, which is a display of Lego builds.

The re-creation is 10 feet long and includes a spinning tornado carrying Dorothy and her house off to Oz.  It then turns into a colored array of bricks to simulate the Yellow Brick Road.

CNET.com says the display continues through Emerald City, a dark forest, the witches castle and back to Emerald City as Oz’s balloon is set to launch.

Image Courtesy of Mike Sellers.

On May 31st, air travelers scrambled for shelter in two different cities when tornadoes were reportedly heading for Will Rogers and Lambert Airports.  On Tuesday, it happened again, this time east of Denver.

Thousands of people crouched in bathrooms, stairwells and safe spots as a tornado briefly touched down over the east runways at Denver International Airport.

Wind gusts were measured at 97 miles per hour, but there was no damage and only nine flights were diverted.

In 1987 - It was a warm June day, with plenty of thunderstorms east of the Rockies.  Lightning knocked out power at Throckmorton, Texas, and ignited an oil tank battery.  A woman in Knox City, Texas, was struck by lightning while in her car, and a man was struck by lightning near his home in Manatee County FL.

In 2006 - Up to 11 inches of rain fell in the Houston, Texas area, causing widespread flash flooding.  The Houston Fire Department rescued more than 500 people from flood waters, but no serious injuries or fatalities were reported.

In 1970 - Wind and rain, and hail up to seven inches deep, caused more than five million dollars damage at Oberlin, Kansas.

In 1988 - Severe thunderstorms in eastern North Dakota and northern Minnesota produced hail three inches in diameter and spawned four tornadoes in Steele County.

According to BuffaloBills.com, the NFL quarterback was flying into Dallas-Fort Work airport from Buffalo the night of the storms.  After landing, passengers received calls from family members telling them of what happened.  Kolb overheard one passenger that a large tornado had struck his home town.  He immediately called his wife.

“I just landed when the tornadoes had just hit Granbury, so of course I picked up my phone and called my wife because people were talking about it on the plane,” he said. “She was good because she was there at the airport to pick me up, but we had no idea about our house.”

It turned out that the Kobls home was fine.  The twister did most of its damage about three miles away.  Kolb said, “We were fortunate.”  That’s when he knew how they could help.

“We had a second home that we had up for sale in the area and we decided to take it off the market,” said Kolb. “We’re setting up for them to live in it until they get their house rebuilt.”

“They’re overwhelmed, not just because of what we offered, but what our church is doing rebuilding their house from scratch,” he said. “It’s a really good opportunity for everybody to lend a hand and for them to forget about their situation for a little bit.”

Courtesy of KCRW.

In 1859 - Hot Santa Ana winds in southern California roasted fruit on one side at Santa Barbara.

In 1882 - A tornado traveled more than 200 miles across the state of Iowa killing 130 people.  The twister touched down about ninety miles west of Grinnell, and struck the town and college around sunset, killing sixty, and causing more than half a million dollars damage.  Traveling at nearly 60 miles per hour, the tornado hit Mount Pleasant about 11 PM.

In 1987 - Thunderstorms produced severe weather in the south central U.S.  Thunderstorms in Kansas produced wind gusts to 76 mph at Lyons, and baseball size hail at Garden City.

Two men were in a Kansas City, Kansas, park at about 3:20 a.m. playing disc golf in the dark.

Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Kelli Baliff said both men were walking through Rosedale Park when one of them, Nicholas Moeder tripped over a power line.  Moeder became tangled in the live wire; the friend tried to pull him away but kept getting shocked.

Storms that rumbled through Kansas City Saturday afternoon are believed to have been responsible for knocking down the power line.

In 1944 - A tornado in Sioux City, Iowa, traveled an odd course.  It spun in one place for about twenty minutes, made a U-turn, traveled southeast for about three miles, then traveled south, east, north, and finally east again.

In 1989 - Daytime thunderstorms produced severe weather from northern Florida to the Middle Atlantic Coast.  The thunderstorms spawned eight tornadoes, and there were 138 reports of large hail and damaging winds.

Image from universaltoday.com.

In 1879 - McKinney, North Dakota received 7.7 inches of rain in 24 hours, a state record.

In 1953 - Dust devils are usually rather benign weather phenomena, however, two boys were injured by one near Prescott Arizona.  One of the boys suffered a black eye, and the other boy had two vertebrae fractured by wind-blown debris.

In 1989 - Thunderstorms produced severe weather over the Southern and Middle Atlantic Coast States.  The thunderstorms spawned eight tornadoes, including strong (F-3) tornadoes which injured three people at Mountville, Pennsylvania, and four people at Columbia, Pennsylvania.

Damage near the start of likely tornado off Trickum Rd and Shallowford Rd in Cobb County. Image from NWS Atlanta Twitter

The National Weather in Peachtree City, GA sent out survey teams Friday to analyze damage across the northern suburbs of Atlanta.  Their preliminary findings show at least two tornado touchdowns, both with a ranking of EF-1.

One tornado touched down 4 miles WNW of Canton, GA with estimated peak wind of 105mph.  The path length was 8.5 miles.  Hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted along the tornado patch.  A Chevron gas station had a portion of its roof peeled back and a gas pump blown over.

Another tornado touched down within a tenth of a mile of the Cherokee-Cobb county line.  Most of the EF-1 damage was found in Cobb county.  The most significant damage was near Wendwood Drive NE and Near Bishop Lake.  Dozens of trees were snapped and uprooted, many landing on trees.

Here is the preliminary survey and at the time of this writing the team was still out in the field so updates are expected:  Survey