KARE 11's Belinda Jensen writes children's books to help kids understand the weather

It may be a new medium for KARE 11's Belinda Jensen, but it's the same weather-driven message.

Jensen, the chief meteorologist for KARE, mother of two, co-host of Saturday's "Grow With KARE," is now an author, too, after she spent the past 10 months writing six tales of "Bel the Weather Girl" with the aim of bringing relief to scared children.

"It's a busy schedule, but it's like a lot of moms out there. We wear a lot of hats," she said.

With today's constant news cycle, the constant availability of radar maps and online videos of frightening weather patterns, children are often bombarded by scary weather, she said.

But even with all the imagery available, children are rarely taught the not-so-scary science behind the clouds.

"Kids are seeing these horrific storms, and they don't understand that these don't happen all the time," Jensen said. "[But] once you explain the science to them, they realize that every dirt cloud is not going to be a tornado."

After years of classroom visits, weather broadcasts and the maternal support it takes to keep her own children — and dog — from running for cover at the break of thunder, she decided to write a half-dozen science-infused children's books about weather phenomena.

"I do have an 8-year-old," Jensen said. "She was quite afraid of the weather. I wrote from experience when it comes to these storms."

In the books Bel, a bright, wiry 8-year-old with weather on her mind, explains rare tornadoes, blizzards, hail and hurricanes, and also everyday clouds and thunderstorms, with the help of her cousin Dylan and her pup Stormy.

While the books are fiction, Bel and Stormy are lifted right from Jensen's life, and her Edina home. Stormy is much like hersix-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog, Keana, she said. On thunder-filled nights, Belinda's bed would often fill up with uninvited guests — her daughter and dog.

Bel, the main character, is a lot like a young Jensen.

"It is me. I was a science nerd," said Jensen, who explained that the book's illustrator worked from a childhood picture of Jensen to develop Bel. But the books are more than a fictionalized account of Jensen's stories; they contain glossaries, indexes, fact boxes and plenty of science.

"The science has to be right, but it has to be understandable," Jensen said.

Jensen and her publishers, Millbrook Press, hope that the book can be used as second-grade curriculum.

In her 25 years as a meteorologist, Jensen has visited countless classrooms, where the weather books fell into two categories: dumbed-down texts that explain raindrops, or scary picture books with pictures of extreme weather systems. Jensen hopes "Bel the Weather Girl" will teach students about weather in fun, family-centric story lines.

And as a woman in a scientific field, she hopes that young girls will meet Bel and aspire to a career in science.

"Kids see that here's this 8-year-old girl," she said. "I've always been someone who thinks that that's really important."

Barry Lytton is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for the Star Tribune.