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There's no hard definition for those terms, but I generally see "deadly" for what seem to be strong tornadoes vs. "damaging" for weaker ones (though really almost every tornado has the potential to be deadly in the right situation).

As for weather books for kids, I recently bought for a couple of my nephews that were really interested in weather a book called Tornadoes! in a series of weather books published by Scholastic, and they love it. It was actually a book I read when I was in second grade that I used to read repeatedly. Interestingly, it's surprisingly scientifically accurate (at least for the time period and for a book for kids). Admittedly, though, it's not as well-written as I remember, but it has cool illustrations and whatnot. You might have luck checking out other books in that series as well.

Also, the reading level might be a bit more advanced, but I also loved reading a book called the Handy Weather Answer Book when I was a kid (though it was an older version of the book). It's really just a book of weather facts, and it also has a lot of great pictures, etc. Again, it might be a bit higher of a reading level, but as a kid that loved weather, I used to practice reading it with my parents almost every night before going to bed.

Hope this helps!

Hello - Glad to have you joining us as an atmospheric scientist! Can I ask where you are attending school? As for the reading, there are so many places to start. First off you should be well versed in mathematics, especially calculus topics like derivatives, integrals, and some basic differential equations knowledge. These things form the basis of our science.

One good book is the one used at my school for our ATMS100 class, and is co-authored by my department head. Here is a link http://www.amazon.com/SEVERE-AND-HAZARDOUS-WEATHER-INTRODUCTION/dp/0757517544

Here is another intro book http://www.amazon.com/Weather-Studies-Introduction-Atmospheric-Science/dp/1878220748

After you understand the basics you will tackle topics like Thermodynamics, Radiation, and Dynamics. Also I would HIGHLY recommend getting comfortable in a programming language (Python is a good starter) because as an atmospheric scientist it will be extremely helpful if you are able to ingest and process large volumes of weather data in order to analyze and gather info from it. I am about to graduate with a BS in atmos sci and I have already found a job.

My employers definitely need my weather knowledge as it is a very specific domain. But, on top of that, I have about 2 solid years of programming experience. Outside of my classwork I spent lots of time coding. A huge part of being a good engineer/atmospheric-scientist is being able to automate stuff with a programming language. This means that instead of having to make plots of pressure/temperature vs time by hand, I can write a program that will ingest millions of records and make thousands of graphs in a fraction of the time. Also I got familiar with web-dev and the apex of my learning was this ruby on rails app that plots weather forecasts. http://mos-dashboard.herokuapp.com. Having this little app definitely made me more employable. Plus, in the future, the integration of atmospheric science and programming is going to increase.

Here is a good place to start with Python http://www.learnpython.org

PS - feel free to message me if you have more questions.

NWS Meteorologist here. My "basic Meteorology bible" is this. This is perfect if you have zero knowledge. There are older and newer editions available if you are looking for something cheaper or more current.

My more advance one is this. This is only recommended if you have expertise in higher level mathematics such as PDE's, ODE's, Complex Variables, Calculus, Linear Algebra.

This site is great. Don't let the design fool you. This guy does a great job of simplifying harder concepts.

Also, if you are interested please feel free to message me. I'd love to help out a fellow weather enthusiast.

Definitely stop by your local NWS Weather Forecasting Office and take a tour. We also offer free spotter classes to train you, so you can become a certified trained weather spotter.

You can also get Weatherwise magazine (for the common weather nut), or if you are looking forward to a career in Meteorology, I'd recommend becoming a member of the AMS and NWA right away.

I am an undergrad minoring in atmospheric science (hoping to go to grad school for meteorology), and my favorite textbook, hands down, is: http://www.amazon.com/SEVERE-HAZARDOUS-WEATHER-INTRODUCTION-METEOROLOGY/dp/075755041X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304034575&sr=1-2
It's extremely easy to understand and I actually enjoyed reading it.

A better known introductory textbook is: http://www.amazon.com/Meteorology-Today-C-Donald-Ahrens/dp/0495555738/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304035166&sr=1-2
The explanations and pictures are thorough and helpful, but I didn't like it as much. It does come with a cloud chart though!

And for a more technical look into atmospheric science I have this beaut: http://www.amazon.com/Meteorology-Scientists-Engineers-Roland-Stull/dp/0534372147/ref=pd_sim_b_4
The math is pretty straight forward for the most part, and has a lot of examples and practice problems. Plus it familiarizes you with thermodynamic charts, which are a lot of fun (and yes, I am being completely serious).

Hope that helped!

Interesting! I referred to the book that I got that from, and I was correct in what it says, but apparently it's not always the case, and usually depends on the cloud type! I took a picture of the book... just because. It's from The Cloud Collector's Handbook, which is a great book overall. Awesome pictures, but definitely not very formal.

If you want your mind raped

On the other hand the introductory course at my college uses this textbook which I though was very good. Explained weather concepts very nicely and has some good examples.

You may also like the Weather Forcasting Handbook by Tim Vasquez also, (well Anything by Tim Vasqauez from what I heard is great).
He also owns a weather forum that is visited by a good amount of experienced storm chasers and weather enthuses, stormtrack.org .
You also have https://www.meted.ucar.edu/index.php which was either linked to either on here or /r/freebies which offers free meteorology courses.

We used the Kestrel in the Air Force. It was accurate enough for us to use to take official observations with, so it will likely do well for you.

For indoors at home, Amazon has a pretty well received dedicated humidity sensor.

There is actually a whole series of these "You Can Be a Woman...(TM)" books and they are by author Judith Love Cohen. Some lovely examples are:

Zoologist

Cardiologist

Chemist

Marine Biologist

Astronomer (I don't think this is a part of the aforementioned series but I feel strongly that my Astronomy professor had to have read this one.)

I assume you have Holton? The fourth edition is the one to get, but it gives it a good treatment.

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Dynamic-Meteorology-International-Geophysics/dp/0123540151

I have a undergrad degree in Met and I would recommend: Understanding "Weather and Climate" by Aguado and Burt
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Weather-Climate-Edward-Aguado/dp/0321595505/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1304087943&sr=1-2-catcorr