15 C15
created: 2023-06-04T10:39 updated: 2023-06-04T10:
Hannah walked around the corner and saw her dad's truck sitting in the driveway. She had seen the outlooks from the SPC and it was going to be one of those rare dry spells for the area that her dad chased in. He had gone to Dixie Alley only once and had decided after a too close of a call that had his entire team on the run not to go back. Losing four windows to debris was a hard pill to swallow, especially considering that two of those windows were the driver side door windows. Eric had been cut up pretty bad by the flying glass, but had continued the chase nonetheless. Hannah rushed into the house and found her father and Eric sitting at the kitchen table, two laptops out, both pouring over some printouts.
"Hi daddy!" Hannah said, practically jumping in her father's lap. As she hugged him, he hugged back and she immediately felt at ease. "Hi Eric." She said to him, noticing that he looked at her strangely.
"Hey Pumpkin." Her dad said, a smile on his face. "How was school?"
"You know, you should be careful bouncing like that..." Eric said. He was like an uncle to the girls and often offered the same advice that John did to his daughters. "Your diaper was visible..."
"Oh..." Hannah said, frowning. To her knowledge this was the first time she had ever accidentally revealed her secret. "School was school, I got an A on my test in Algebra though."
"Good job." John and Eric both said at the same time. Hannah picked up a piece of paper that was laying on the table and looked at it. It was a printout of some of the probe data.
"Is this right?" she asked, glancing from her father to Eric and back again.
"That's what we're trying to figure out..." John said. "That probe was deployed a total of four times, there were drops that corresponded with the same data from the mesonet on probe, but nothing that severe.
"Let me run upstairs and change really quick and I'll come back down and help." Hannah said, looking at her father.
"Alright sweetie. Eric and I'll be here." John said. Right after the door to Hannah's room had clicked shut, the front door opened and Emily walked in, carrying a bag that had the Apple logo on it.
"Anything conclusive yet?" she asked, sitting the bag down where Hannah had been seated. Her backpack sat next to the chair on the floor.
"Nothing yet. No other probes measured that kind of a drop, The vehicle mounted equipment didn't measure that kind of a drop, or anything near it for that matter. That probe went out four times, and the anomaly was on the second deployment. I need to take it in and retest the sensor to make sure it's ok before we go public with this."
"Go public with what?" Hannah asked.
"The pressure drop..." John said.
"How much was it?" Hannah asked.
"150 Millibars..." John said.
Hannah finally noticed the bag sitting on the table. "What's this?" She looked from her mom to her dad.
"Open it," John said, smiling at his daughter, and watching as Hannah hesitantly reached inside the bag like something was going to bite her. Out of the bag she pulled out a MacBook Air. She looked at her mother and father, mouth agape. "Congratulations on your promotion... You're now a forecaster for Twister Servere Weather Research. You've never steered me wrong, and I value your input as a forecaster, so now you have the title..."
"I don't know what to say..." Hannah said, tears welling up in her eyes. These were happy tears rather than the tears that had escaped when the whole issue with the diapers had started.
"How about unpacking the laptop and then telling me where I should go tomorrow if anything looks promising." John said, winking at Emily. They had been comparing model runs ever since John had walked in the door. The three of them watched as Hannah tore into the plastic wrap on the box and unpacked the laptop. Turning the laptop on, she smiled one of the biggest smiles that she had smiled in some time.
"Alright!" Hannah said. While the laptop started it's initial boot, Hannah looked at her father. "So, since I'm a forecaster now, do I get paid?" There was laughter around the table.
"I'll have to talk to Rebecca, but I would imagine that any salary you would get should go into your college fund, at least most of it." John said.
"Aww..." Hannah said, smiling. As soon as Hannah connected the laptop to the wifi network she pulled up the pages for the SPC and a site called Twisterdata that provided access to the models. Hannah did some clicking, comparing model runs, and then finally looked at her dad. "All of the models seem to indicate that anything is going to happen within 25 miles of Norman."
"Since tomorrow is Saturday, you want to ride along?" John said, smiling.
"Absolutely!" Hannah said. "I'll have to pack a bag, But yeah, I'll go with you..."
"Do you have jeans that you can wear? You already know that you have to wear your boots." John asked. Hannah had to think about that for a second. She had been wearing skirts and dresses ever since she had started wearing diapers during the day.
"I would have to go try a pair on and see what happens... I probably have some that would fit over the diapers. I don't think the skinny jeans that I have would work very well..." Everyone around the table chuckled...
"I remember how badly you wanted those..." Emily said, pulling a chair out and sitting down. "I think you have a few pair of jeans that will work and still fit. If you don't we'll go get you a few pair tonight. Also, we need to cover a few rules with the laptop." Emily passed, took a breath and looked from Hannah to John and back to Hannah. "The laptop stays at home, it doesn't go with you to school, You have to stop playing with it by bedtime. Can you handle that?"
"Yep, I think I can handle that," Hannah replied, practically bouncing. She was ready to go out the next day with her father. "I'll go try my pants on." And with that she was running up the steps as fast as her legs would carry her.