23 C23
created: 2023-06-04T10:39 updated: 2023-06-04T10:
Emily pulled the car into a parking spot labeled with a sign that read "Reserved for ASA" and parked the car. She knew that the Forecast office currently had no one fulfilling that position, and therefore the spot wouldn't be used. It had started to rain but only lightly. Hannah knew that it was going to get worse, the radar had shown her that. The sky looked rather unthreatening, and that posed problems; people generally didn't take the weather seriously when there didn't appear to be a threat. In Oklahoma, everyone paid attention to the weather, even the school children did.
"Hannah, get my bag and the laptops, I'll get your suitcase." Emily said, shutting the car off and popping the trunk. Hannah undocked the laptop and closed the display. Opening the door, Hannah frowned as there was another large clap of thunder. The storm was close; too close. It became evident when all the hair on Hannah's exposed arm stood on end right before a bolt of lightening struck a cellular tower across the street. Lexie and Olivia both screamed.
"Holy shit!" Emily said; opening the door on the back of the car. "Let's go. Now." Hannah had made it to the trunk and had the trunk open. Everyone grabbed the bags from the trunk and made for the front door of the National Weather Center after the trunk was closed. Hannah took one glance out the window as the rain started to fall, not realizing that it would be the last time she saw that car in it's current condition. Emily walked up to a door and swung her purse at a card reader the light on it glowed red for a moment, turned green and beeped. Hannah pulled the door open and the four of them walked into a corridor. A loud clap of thunder was barely audible as the lights went out. The hallway remained dark as they continued to the door labeled 'Norman Forecast Office - Authorized Personnel Only'. There was no light on the card reader so Emily tried the door; it didn't budge. Right as she was about knock on the door, the generator kicked in and the hallway was lit again. The red light on the card reader came on and Emily swung her purse at it. It beeped and the light turned green. Hannah opened this door as well. As they walked into the room that was in the middle of rebooting, Jim Hobson glanced up as the four people entered the room.
"Will someone call the surrounding WFO's and let them know that we are offline. We have no eyes and are waiting on reboots." Jim said. "Doctor. Glad you could make it."
"I don't have cell service." A forecaster named Matt Smith said. "The PBX isn't back up yet."
"A tower across the street got hit as we were coming in." Emily said. "Call me Emily or Em. Don't worry about my title. Jim where do you want me?"
"Northwest forecast desk. Hannah can sit at the work station behind you." Emily nodded and headed for the desk that Jim had mentioned. Every quadrant of the forecast area had a desk and a secondary forecaster that also provided a set of eyes. Hannah's eyes wouldn't be on the northwest quadrant but all over the general area. The computers hadn't shut off due to the power failure, but they were useless without the radar spinning.
"Jim, can we pull from other sites?" Hannah asked.
"Unless they've gone off line, yes." Jim said, watching as the projectors in the front of the room came back on. "In AWIPS, at the top click on select site to change where you're looking." AWIPS was the software that the staff at the National Weather Service used to tie all of the data points together to make a forecast.
"Thank you." Hannah said, having already clicked on the menu item. Quickly navigating the menu system of AWIPS, Hannah created her own radar map using data from the sites surrounding Norman. The resolution of the images wasn't that great, but it gave her an idea of what was going on outside the hardened building that she sat in. Her eyes were quickly scanning for something that she hoped to not see. Quickly switching radar products, her heart stopped for a moment. "Jim, how can I send what I'm looking at to the front of the room?"
"Done." A voice from the back of the room said, right as Hannah switched back to the Base Reflectivity view. The screen in the front of the room briefly showed the velocity product before switching to reflectivity.
"Go back to that." Jim said, now standing next to Hannah. Hannah switched views and looked at the screen. It had gotten even worse in the time that it took to switch views. "Pull up the CC view." The Correlation coefficient view was based on mathematical computation of the likeness of close proximity objects in the path of the radar beam. There was a sharp intake of breath from Jim.
"Tornado Emergency, Canadian, Cleveland, McClain, Grady and Oklahoma Counties. Half hour minimum to expire." Jim shouted. "Do we have ground truth on it?"
"Not yet." Someone else shouted. The person had two phones up to each ear.
"It's radar indicated until we get ground truth." Jim said. The center screen in the front of the room lit up with a live shot of the radar off the dish mounted behind the building. "Oh my God." Jim said.
"Um.. It's headed right toward us." Matt Smith said aloud.
"Notify everyone in the building." Jim said. "Especially the upper floor." Hannah turned to look out of the office windows. The sky had gotten darker and the trees were bending like the were about to break.
"How strong are those windows? Hannah asked, pointing at the windows outside of the offices that were between the occupants of the building and outside.
"They are three inch thick lexan. Nothing's getting through those." Jim said. The lights in the room blinked twice and then went out. A few seconds later the generator kicked in and the lights came back on. "Someone get live coverage from one of the TV stations." By the time the projectors had turned back on, the screen on the left was showing a live feed from one of the choppers. There was a crackle as the speakers in the ceiling kicked on.
"This thing is at least a mile and a half wide and our radar seems to indicate wind speeds in excess of two hundred ninety miles an hour. It's moving south east at twenty five miles an hour. The current path of this tornado is going to take it past the hospital in Moore, and down through Norman. The Oklahoma University campus in Norman is in the direct path of this storm. Take shelter now."
"Call security, tell them to open the doors and let people in. Get as many as you can into the basement." Jim shouted. "Also update the warning to spotter reported."
"Mommy!" Olivia shouted. Hannah jumped up and grabbed her, holding tightly. The lights in the room flickered.
"Unless you need to be exposed, get under something." Jim said. Hannah knew that these people would stay at their posts until the end or right before it. "It's still tracking south east, but it looks like it's grown in size." Hannah was pushing Lexie and Olivia under the desk that she had been working at. After taking a glance at the monitors on the desk, she crawled under there too. Lexie and Olivia had gotten down like they told you to do at school. The whole building shook, the lights blinked again and went out; staying out this time. The only light in the room was from the monitors on the desks, the emergency lighting, and the lightening flashing thought the windows. The roar was deafening. There was a loud thud as something hit the windows on the outside of the building. Hannah glanced over to see that it was her mom's car, now on it's side, roof collapsed, leaning against the building. A second later the car was gone; so quick that Hannah just blinked and it was gone. Outside the window was just a mass of swirling blackness; various objects flying around. A cow slammed against the lexan window, blood splattered everywhere; and then was gone by a torrent of water. All of the sudden, the sprinklers activated and started pouring water down on the occupants of the room. Seconds later the sprinklers shut off, due to having exhausted the water in the system and the fact that the water main system had no water pressure. Suddenly everything was quiet and the sun was shining. There was the sound of things falling out of the air and hitting the building, some larger than others. "Is everyone alright?"
There were a chorus of 'yes's from around the room. Olivia and Lexie were sobbing, Hannah just breathed deeply.
"I want my mommy." Olivia said between sobs. Hannah looked around. Everything had changed. Nothing would be the same again.