Curious kids often wonder about the wide variety of talents of TV weather anchors — including, it seems, the ability to create weather.Meteorologists from area stations give regular studio tours to youngsters and visit local classrooms, where kids ask the darndest things.The most popular question: How much money do you make?When faced with this query, Matt Meister, Chief Meteorologist at KRDO NewsChannel 13, always answers, “Not as much as you think I do.”Several years ago, Meister offered that response to a room full of kids only to receive instant verification from one of the children.“A little boy put his hand up and said, ‘He isn’t rich. Me and my Mom saw him get out of his car … it’s dirty and junky!’” Meister recalled. “Needless to say, the rest of the kids laughed and I may have blushed a little bit!”Some questions make you laugh. Others have made anchors scratch their heads.• “What if a tornado got sucked up by a hurricane?”• “Can a tornado pick up your house and take you to Grandmas?”•“What would happen if an airplane flew into a tornado and fire shot out of the wings before you flew out the other side, would it snow?”Meister’s favorite question came a couple of years ago from a Pueblo fifth-grader.“A young man said, ‘My Nana told me that clouds are God painting the sky, but you said they are made of water,’” Meister said.“I took the boy, his class and the teacher outside and showed them the cirrus clouds. You know … the kind that look like a paintbrush was touched to the sky and quickly pulled to the side. After noting how the clouds sure looked like a paintbrush had made them, I said, ‘It’s pretty obvious to me that your Nana is right, but maybe she forgot that God uses watercolors!’”Here’s a sampling of other questions from kids and answers from local weather personalities.

MIKE DANIELS, Weather Anchor, KOAA News 5Q: How much money do you make?A: I tell them a million dollars. They gasp. I then tell them my contract is a dollar a year for a million years.Q: Do you have to wear makeup?A: The boys always grimace when I tell them that makeup is part of the job. You will shine like you’re sweating if you don’t apply the makeup. The usual response: “Ewwwwww.”Q: With the plain green screen behind you and no maps behind you, how do you know where to point?A: I tell them, when I first started at News 5 I was talking about Colorado and at the same time pointing at Canada! It takes time to get used to the green Chroma key screen.Q: Why did you want to do the weather on TV?A: As a youngster I was always intrigued with our changing weather here in Colorado. One day sunny, the next snow. When I was in the third grade, I had my mom take me to library to get books on weather.Q: Do you like what you do?A: I tell them, I look forward to going to work every day (for 20 years). I very much enjoy what I do. Figuring out the forecast each day in our part of Colorado can create a few gray hairs, but it’s still what I live and love to do!”

TERRY GERBSTADT, Chief Meteorologist, KXRM Fox 21 NewsQ: When will it snow next?A: Are they worried about shoveling the sidewalk, or scraping the snow off the car? Absolutely not! They’re wondering if there’s a snow day in their near future. When there is a snow day, many of them head to the hill behind my house!Q: How does the green wall (Chroma Key wall) work? Weather anchors stand in front of a blank green wall and look at maps that are off-screen to the side. (NOTE: You’ll never see a TV weather anchor wearing green because everything that’s green will be invisible to the TV viewers).A: To that, I always reply that question is above my pay grade. You need to ask the technical director.

BRIAN BLEDSOE, Chief Meteorologist/Climatologist, KKTV 11 NewsQ: Why can’t God stop tornadoes?A: Uhhhh, that is a great question and sadly, I do not have the answer.Q: Do you sleep at the TV station, cuz my mommy says she sees you on TV all the time?A: No, I tape some of those weather forecasts so I can actually go home.Q: Can you always see us at home through our TV?A: No, just some of the time.Q: Since you are going to put me on TV tonight, can I ask my mom first? Because she’ll be mad at me if I am late for dinner.A: How about I just use my camera to put you on TV, that way you won’t be late for dinner. By the way, what is she making us tonight?Q: Mr. Bledsoe, why did you quit playing football in the NFL to be a weatherman? (in reference to former quarterback Drew Bledsoe)A: Um, I never did play in the NFL.Q: You are Drew Bledsoe, right?A: No, I am Brian Bledsoe.Response: Oh, never mind then, you’re just the weather guy.

CRAIG ELIOT, Meteorologist, KOAA News 5Q: Do you make the weather?A: No, we just try figure out what it is going to be so you and your parents know what kind of clothes to wear.

Q: How much money do you make?A: About what your teachers make.Q: Have you ever been in a tornado?A: Oh yes! Many times. Especially when I was working in tornado alley in Texas. I tell them the story about how a twister came through a rural part of the area. One farmer lost some of his cows and couldn’t find a new-born calf. A few days later, I got a call from the farmer who said his calf had ended up miles away covered in mud at another farm. His theory was the calf was picked up by the funnel and relocated.

Q: Do you get nervous?A: No, we are too busy, so there is not enough time to get nervous.

Q: Why did you want to be a meteorologist?A: You know when you are outside playing or at the park and you look up at the clouds and some of them look like different things? That one looks like a giraffe, that one like a car! I can clearly remember when I was 4, lying on my back in the park and being amazed and in awe from watching the clouds. I thought: I need to get a job where I get paid to watch the clouds!And now that I am a Dad, one of my favorite things is to go to the mountains or parks and watch the clouds move and change shape in the sky right before our eyes.