I recall that it was a hot, steamy day for an afternoon soccer game in Florida, USA. My name is Dan, and I was 10 years old at the time; I had forgotten to bring my soccer shoes, so the coach made me play goalkeeper in sandals. My team was ahead by a few goals. From where I stood in the net area, bored and sweating, I had a perfect view of thunderclouds swelling in the horizon.

The longer the game went on, the darker the sky grew. Thunderstorms can blow in quickly during summer days where I live, but even so, we were surprised at how soon the first raindrops fell. By half-time, it was pouring, and lightning was so close to our field that the referee stopped the game temporarily.

My team-mates and I were huddled in a tent next to the field. We were waiting for the storm to pass when we heard sirens warning of a tornado coming our way.

Our coach did not think twice! He told us to go straight to the main building of our school nearby, and he made sure that every one of us entered the basement which had been especially built to resist tornadoes. We waited in there for an hour or so. Our coach even had time to tell us a story about how he won this important soccer game when he was a university student. We were not afraid of the storm, because we knew we were safe in the basement.

When we came out, the rain had stopped and the sky had cleared Our tent next to the soccer field was gone though, and many branches were all over the place. I wonder what would have happened if the Meteorological Service hadn’t warned us on time…