Visit to National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) - Fri 25 June, 2004
My friends and I had lunch at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR - pronounced 'en-car') in Boulder, and it was my first time there. The people working there are very knowledgable about how the weather works. They had extremely nice views there, and I didn't bring my camera! So later that day, I went back there by myself with a camera to take some nice photos.

NCAR is the group of buildings perched up on top of that hill there.

Looking at NCAR from the car park.

This is the main entrance at NCAR.

This artifical tornado display was quite an interesting one. I like that a lot. For this display, they had some water vapour coming out the bottom of the display structure, and a fan at the top of the structure. Also, the cylindrical columns had holes that gently blew air. All of these things combined created conditions to form the artificial tornado.

This is a close up of the artificial tornado. This tornado was quite fragile, in that the people walking past this display was enough to make the tornado disappear due to the air being disturbed.

This tornado is quite nicely formed.

A kind tourist took this photo for me.

These are the NCAR buildings up close. They look a bit out of shape (on an angle) only because of the distortive effects of the camera lens. The buildings are definitely straight when you're there to see the same view with your own eyes! :) The flag is at half-mast to honour President Ronald Reagan.