What's SKYWARN, Precious?
Oh 2J, you and the jedis would love HAM radio and SKYWARN. Karateboy isn't mature enough yet, but your older son sounds like this stuff is right up his alley, so to speak.
http://www.skywarn.org/
Skywarn is a volunteer weatherspotter program administered by the National Weather Service. Many of the spotters are ham radio operators using mobil radio gear. Many NWS personnel are also ham operators so they can easily communicate with spotters in the field.
http://www.skywarn.org/default.htm