Some decisions I make are good ones, but the one I made last night was a bad one.
For the last two days, the weather forecasters were telling us we were in for some severe weather on Monday and to expect high winds, large hail and possible tornadoes. Because of that, our REACT team was getting geared up for an evening of storm spotting. I received emails and text messages, informing me when we could expect severe weather in the metro. So, I was getting excited, just knowing I would spend the evening spotting storms and getting some good pictures.
While I was at work, I was informed our mid-shift person had called in. Because of that, someone had to stay late and work with our evening shift dispatcher. There are two of us in dispatch who volunteer most of the time to work the extra shifts…..myself and a female dispatcher. When I asked her if she could stay late and assist the evening dispatcher, she said no. I didn’t want to stay because I was getting prepared for an evening of storm spotting. Deep down inside, I knew that I needed to stay late and get the overtime because the money is desperately needed……but, I chose not to. Bad decision.
Through emails, I was informed storms would be developing between 5-6 pm in the metro area. Different REACT members were texting and emailing the team, letting us know when they were available to spot. Right before I got off work, I checked the radar….there was nothing developing. After work, I went by the credit union and then home. When I got home, I checked the radar again and noticed there were no storms forming. I met a few of my REACT team members at OCCC and we made a plan. I drove down to Newcastle and set up on a hill west of the City. I sat….and sat….and sat…and watched a few clouds form. Since nothing was happening, I drove back into town and got something to eat at Sonic…..I eventually set up again on a hill just west of the city. No action.
I was in constant communication (by two-way radio) with one of our members who had a laptop and was keeping us updated on what was going on with the storms. After sitting in Newcastle for over an hour, I decided it was time to leave. Storms were developing south and south east of me….and north west of me….but nothing to my south west. I decided to change positions and go further north, so I left Newcastle and drove to Tuttle. From Tuttle, I met up with another REACT storm spotter and we headed north on Sara Rd, towards I-40, trying to catch up to a storm. Traffic was slow and the storm was moving fast, so it left us behind.
Another storm was developing around Tuttle (the same area we had just left), so we drove back to Tuttle………for nothing. The storm never fully developed. There was another storm just north of us that was heading to the city, so we left Tuttle and headed back north on I-44. Again, this storm was moving rapidly north east. I drove east on I-240 and exited Douglas Blvd. I went north on Douglas Blvd to NE.10 and realized I could not catch up with the storm.
I was totally disappointed in the evening and really mad at myself. All I had to show for an evening of storm spotting was 120 miles of wasted gas and a few “cloud” pictures. I drove into a few heavy showers, but there was no wind and no hail. Most of the really bad storms were south east and north west of the city. Just to think…I could have worked until 8 pm at work and received 4 hours of overtime. Instead, my excitement got the best of me and nothing big happened with the weather. The only good thing that came out of last night’s storm spotting was the fact we were able to use our new two-way radios with our new repeater. In the past, communicating during severe weather was nearly impossible. Now that we have these two-way radios on a repeater system, we are able to communicate with each other from all parts of the city.
www.centralokreact.org
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