The Black Wind - All Systems Down

[upbeat music] So did you know that you're the cool teacher?

Um, no. [laughs] I'm the cool teacher? Oh, really?

Meet Craig Walter, the cool teacher, famous at Windham High School for his jokes, for how worked up he got during the lectures in his earth sciences class, for letting his students freeze bottles of Mountain Dew in his mini fridge so they can make slushies.

But on this one field trip in 1999, Craig became legendary That year, Craig took his meteorology class on a field trip from their small town in southern Minnesota to the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

It's like, "Hey, not many high schools have a meteorology class, so why not bring them to where the experts are?" In the back of my mind, I'm like, "God, it'd be great if we saw some tornadoes.

It'd be great if I ran into some of these famous, uh, tornado researchers."

[instrumental music plays] Craig was obsessed with tornadoes.

He'd gone chasing on his own once or twice, and his principal knew how passionate he was.

So before he let Craig take 12 teenagers into the middle of Tornado Alley at the beginning of tornado season, he made Craig promise.

My principal said, you know, the, you know, "You're not gonna be storm chasing.

You know, you can't, you can't be storm chasing, because you're gonna put kids in danger, and, and..." You know, I don't remember the exact words, but basically, I would be fired if I took kids storm chasing.

And I remember distinctly saying to him, "You know, here's the deal.

I don't know if you've ever been to Oklahoma, but it's really flat, and if there's a tornado, we might be able to see it from our hotel." In my own mind, it wasn't a solid, "No, I'm not gonna go storm chasing."

[laughs]

Because if there was-

That sounds like a pretty solid no. [laughs]

Yeah.

[engine humming] Two big white vans full of chattering high school students set off across the prairie on a 12-hour road trip.

I had never been, like, further south than Spirit Lake, so it was all new stuff, seeing the terrain, like, heading down there.

And all of a sudden y- when you see red dirt for the first time, and that's all you see in Oklahoma.

[instrumental music plays] Benny Collins, a junior, was a real weather junkie.

I still have a journal where I would watch all the local meteorologists on TV and write down what they were forecasting.

At 17, he was quiet and shy, in fact, voted quietest and shyest in his high school yearbook.

You are a quiet and reserved guy, but it all changes when you start talking about meteorology.

Oh, God, [laughs] thanks.