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MPR News Staff

KARE's Belinda Jensen pens children's books to take the worry out of weather

'Bel the Weather Girl' books
KARE meteorologist Belinda Jensen has written a series of children's books to help children understand the science behind the weather.
Courtesy of Lerner Publishing Group

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You know her as KARE 11's chief meteorologist, but Belinda Jensen has recently taken on a new role: writing children's books.

She's created a book series called "Bel the Weather Girl" to help kids understand the science behind weather — especially children who may be afraid of things like tornadoes, blizzards and thunderstorms.

In fact, Jensen's own family helped inspire the series — "I have a little one that used to be so afraid of the weather," she said.

Throughout the series, title character Bel delivers playful interpretations of weather science while reassuring her cousin Dylan and her dog Stormy, both of whom are more fearful about the weather.

Jensen joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to discuss her book series, why children are afraid of weather today and why she decided to create "Bel the Weather Girl." Click on the audio player above for more.

One weather memory that stands out from her childhood

There was one particular storm that knocked down my treehouse — it was actually a tornado. ... It obviously made me upset but it also just made me very, very curious of how that could happened. Our house was affected and then next door, it wasn't affected.

Why some children are afraid of weather today

I think that the 24/7 news cycle that we live in right now, we're seeing so many more devastating pictures every night, every day, every week, that that's part of the problem.

I think kids see that Moore (Okla.) tornado, — they see it 47 times in a week and a half — and they don't understand that it only happened that one time.

Each of the books in the series has an experiment in it, and more are available online. Readers can use a bottle and boiled egg to learn about air pressure, figure out the temperature by counting cricket chirps and more.

But the most popular experiment is how to make a cloud in a jar.

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