Chapter 1

Hannah sat in the truck, her feet up on the dash. She was reading a paper published by some of the forecasters at the Storm Prediction Center about the storms the day that her father had been killed. The setup had been eerily similar to the setup on May 3rd of 1999, but there were a few differences, the first of which being that the 2017 storm had been stronger, and the funnel bigger, setting a record on the largest recorded funnel. She felt the straps of the shortalls she wore digging into her shoulders because of the angle of her body. The front doors on the truck were open and there was a slight breeze blowing through. She heard giggling and glanced up to see Lexie and Olivia running up to the truck. Both had on skirts and their hair in pigtails; not typical chase attire, but today wasn't about chasing. Today was about equipment shakedowns. Hannah had secured funding for a radar that was attached to the truck. The radar would provide an additional eye on the sky during an event, and today would be a test run. That was, if any storms developed... The pair of giggling girls got to the door.

"What's ya reading?" Lexie asked, flipping a braided pigtail back over her shoulder.

"The report from the weather service the day that dad died." Hannah said, giving a sad smile to her sister.

"Oh," Lexie said, her face dropping. "So Olivia and I were looking at the radar and we think we may have a target..." Her cheery voice was back.

"Oh?" Hannah asked, switching from the webpage she was looking at to the live radar beamed down from high above.

"Yeah," Lexie said. "There is a small cell around ten miles west of here, but it might be just enough to get the data that you need for the test..."

Hannah spotted the cell on the radar. It was moving northeast at twenty miles an hour. They could catch it easily. "Let's mount up!" Hannah shouted, pulling her feet off the dash and leaning out the door. The two black sedans sat behind the truck, the anemometers spinning slowly in the slight breeze. She pulled the back door shut and then closed the passenger door. She turned to Joe Weinrick, who was the only other masters level meteorologist on the team. "Here goes nothing..."

Joe smiled, dropped the truck in gear and punched the gas, throwing up a cloud of dust and rocks behind the truck as it shot forward, the two sedans did the same but with less dust because of front wheel drive. The trio of vehicles traveled west to intercept the