 Welcome to Cooking Up a Storm with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. I'm Tim, a science education specialist at the Amcar Mesa Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. Hi everyone, and I am Chef Nancy from the Mesa Laboratory Kitchens, and today we are going to have some fun with science and with food. Well, I don't know about you Nancy, but I love in these afternoon thunderstorms we get here in Colorado each summer. I thought we could do an experiment today to explore one of the ingredients for thunderstorm formation. That sounds great Tim, I'm in, I'm game, but I have to tell you in the summertime what I love is a good picnic either before or after that storm made with egg salad sandwiches. Is it okay if we study thunderstorms together while we make up some egg salad? Great, sounds great. Cool, okay, so what I want to make is atmospheric egg salad for sandwiches, and I'm going to start out by first hard boiling about three to four eggs, and then I'm going to soak them in white vinegar for an entire day. Now, this is going to take some patience for those of you who are watching, but it is well worth the wait. Try it at home by hard boiling your eggs, leave the shells on, and then cover them in white vinegar like this. Of course, you'll find a step by step recipe in the description below, but until then I got to show this to you. Tim, check this out, this is my egg that's been pickled overnight in my vinegar. Look at how soft and rubbery and squishy it is now. Oh wow, that's very cool, and those eggs are perfect for an experiment today. To learn more about how thunderstorms form, we're going to use an egg to play with air pressure. Nancy, have you ever pumped up the tires of your bike before going to a ride? Well, yeah. Okay, well, when you do that, you're creating high pressure inside of your tire, and then when you open the cap, not a good sound. The air comes rushing out because air likes to go from a place of high pressure inside the tire to a place of low pressure outside the tire, and these differences in air pressure are all through our atmosphere, and they can cause thunderstorms to grow bigger and bigger. Cool, and now that I think about it, Nancy, we're going to need more than just an egg. Do you have a large bottle that we could use? Yeah, you know I do, Tim. How about something like this? Perfect, and for those of you at home, look for a bottle with an opening slightly narrower than the diameter of your egg. A plastic juice bottle can work great, and now let's do a science magic trick together. Chef Nancy, can you put the egg into the bottle without smashing it? Definitely not, nope. All right, I think science can help us. With the help of a grown-up now at home, pour some hot water into your bottle and let it sit for about 20 seconds or so, and remember, as the air gets warmer, air molecules start to move around faster and spread out or expand. So right now, our hot water is heating up our bottle and heating the air inside of it, which is expanding and rising out through the top. Now after about 20 seconds, go ahead and pour the water out. Cool, I can use this for a nice cup of tea. Fantastic. Once the water is out, let your bottle sit around for about 10 seconds. The air inside the bottle is still being warmed by the warm bottle. Remember, the heat makes the air expand or rise up out through the top. We call it an updraft, and as that air moves out, it creates an area of lower pressure inside that bottle. Now go ahead and put your egg on top of the bottle like Chef Nancy. Your egg is now blocking the air's exit. Nancy, can you fan the air around the bottle to help it cool off? Oh, absolutely. Okay, but Tim, can I ask, is the air going to keep expanding or is it going to shrink as I do this? Oh, as the fan cools off the air outside the bottle, the air in the bottle also cools and contracts or shrinks down. And this means the air pressure in the bottle gets even lower. And as the air pressure inside the bottle gets lower and lower, the egg will magically or scientifically will be pushed into the bottle by the high pressure outside. And that high pressure outside pushes the egg into the bottle where the air pressure is lower. Let's watch to see what happens to our egg. Okay, but Tim, tell me again, or how is this like a thunderstorm? Oh, well, this is similar to how thunderstorms form and get bigger because when a thunderstorm is forming, oh, look at that. Fabulous, there it is. This is similar to how thunderstorms grow and get bigger. When the earth's warm surface heats the air above it, that air expands and rises out through the top of the storm, just like the warm air moving out of our bottle, creating low pressure inside the storm, just like we had low pressure inside our bottle. We have low pressure inside the storm, and the air outside is under higher pressure, so it pushes into the thunderstorm, causing it to grow bigger and bigger because unlike our bottle, thunderstorms can stretch and they drag more than just air, they also drag moisture inside of the thunderstorm. And on rare occasions, they can become so severe when the updraft or the air is moving fast that the storm can cause tornadoes, and hopefully not, but they also can create enormous hail. This is a copy, a hailstone that fell out of the sky in 1970 in Coffeeville, Kansas, called the Coffeeville, Kansas Hailstone. Yes, and as these storms get bigger and bigger, they draw more than just air or water or eggs into them, or if they could do that. Some storms over the ocean can even pull fish out of the water. Okay, maybe not like Sharknado, but that's just because the sharks are smart enough to dive down away from the storm as it's happening. I confess I really like Sharknado, but hang on a minute. Please tell me how I get the egg back outside of the bottle so that I can make our atmospheric egg salad. Well, a bit of our friends watching can come up with a solution. Can you find a way to increase the pressure in the bottle again? Think about ways to add air or ways to safely increase the temperature so the air inside the bottle expands again, or just add more air to increase the pressure inside the bottle, and either one of them will push the egg back out. In the comments below, let us know if you figure it out. I think I might need some help figuring that out, Tim. Okay, but I'm going to start making our atmospheric egg salad with my other hard boiled eggs that I've got ready to go. To make your egg salad, just follow the recipe in the description below because egg salad's really pretty easy. You need to have pickled hard boiled eggs, a little mayonnaise, little yellow mustard, some apple cider vinegar. I like a little dry mustard in mine, celery, pickle relish, salt, and pepper. Follow along with a recipe linked in the description below. When you're done, you are going to have delicious atmospheric egg salad sandwiches to take along on your summer storm picnic. Yum! We just hope you can avoid the summer thunderstorms during your picnic, and share a photo of your experiment, your recipe, or your picnic on social media using hashtag cookingwithencar. We'd love to see what you discover. Oh, I can't wait. Until then, we will see you next time on Cooking Up a Storm. Thanks, everyone.