Suri Sunflower

Suri Sunflower wants to be a cloudspotter.

She takes inspiration from her father who works as a storm chaser.

His Daddy Sonny is a worker at Sunflowville’s weather station.

Back in Grade One, Suri would share to her teachers that she saw a bear in the clouds. Sometimes she would also spot men on horses up there carrying their shiny swords. Once, she said, she saw a dragon with a metal ball with spikes for a tail. She loves to gaze at clouds and pick out forms.

“When I grow up I will be a professional cloudspotter,” she told her Science class one day. This was when Teacher Sally, her Grade 5 class adviser, asked her about her dreams.

“I need to visit many communities and share about how we can tell of a coming rain or a coming storm just by looking at the cloud formations,” Suri said.

Her daddy Sonny would tag her along whenever it is allowed to bring children at work. This happens on Family Day or on Open House Day, when visitors are allowed to touch some weather instruments and equipment. Questions on meteorology, or the scientific study of weather and climate, are entertained, too. Some questions give birth to more questions and the discussions can go endless and boring at times. Nevertheless, Suri is still interested because she believes that communities need more weather specialists.

“We cannot tell anymore which months are really sunny or rainy,” she pointed out in class one day. “There used to be a time when the whole of Sunflowville would all look up at the sun in the month of May. We follow its face till the sun sets.”

“But all of a sudden we are drowned by more rains,” she continued. “I am not saying we need more sun than rain. I just don’t think we can gulp in so much water when we are created to appreciate the sun more.”

Today, at summertime, Suri spends her pastime reading more books about clouds. She has read that there are also man-made clouds, such as “contrails” or condensation trails. These are made when airplanes or jets pass by.

She has also checked on a cloud type common in Sunflowville even on supposed sun-baked days of May. This is the cumulonimbus cloud that brings frequent rain to their place.

“I need to study more how clouds speak of changes in weather patterns, on what it is saying about climate change,” she said, lost in her thoughts again, while cloud watching.