It all started Friday afternoon. Severe storms started developing in SW Oklahoma and moved to the north, north east. The first storm was due in the metro at around 3:15 pm and it was packing high winds, golf-ball sized hail, bright lightning and heavy rain. Because of that, I alerted all the field personnel on the radio that the storm was coming into the metro, so they could take cover somewhere. The storm moved in, but the worst part of the storm was west and north of us. We escaped the hail and the high winds, but we got the vivid lightning and heavy rain.
While that storm moved through OKC, another severe storm was moving through Norman. Moments after the storm entered Norman, a storm chaser and a storm tracker from KFOR TV reported a tornado on the ground. It touched just east of I-35 and SH 9 and moved north east, skipping across the city. The storm chasers were able to video it, even though it was hard to see because it was wrapped in rain. Three of our REACT team members were in Norman chasing the storm, while I waited to get off work at 4 pm. Once I got off work, word came out there was lots of damage in Norman from the tornado, so I jumped on the interstate and drove to Norman.
Once I entered into town, traffic was a nightmare. People don’t know how to react, or what to do when an emergency happens. First responders were already on the scene trying to take care of downed power lines and downed trees. The tornado even blew down some power poles that were the very heavy duty metal. OG&E was on the scene, trying to shut the power off to the downed lines. I drove near downtown and went through a neighborhood that had been hit. No homes were destroyed, but there were plenty of trees uprooted, storage buildings destroyed and houses damaged. I drove through, took some pictures and then headed back to OKC because the storms were all east of us.
I was up early Saturday because the National Weather Service had fore casted a severe weather day and we were in the high risk area. Our team had decided to set up an Emergency Operations Center and my church agreed to allow us to use the conference room of the church. I got all my storm chasing supplies together and was ready to meet at the church at 11 am with other REACT members so we could get our assignments for the day. Before I went to the meeting, one of my co-workers called and informed me of a big main break in the 7700 block of SW 34. I grabbed my stuff and headed out the door. This is what I saw when I arrived on the scene.
Afterwards, I headed over to my office to pick up a few things, went by McDonalds for breakfast and headed home. I eventually headed over to the church and, with the help of another REACT member, we set up the conference room for our EOC. We did not have that many people at the meeting because some had to work. We met, discussed what the NWS had fore casted for our area and then headed out to western Oklahoma to wait for the storms to develop.
During the day, we watched and monitored the weather situation, but saw nothing. North of us, in Woodward, they were getting slammed by tornadoes. According to the NWS, storms were suppose to develop along the western part of the state, all the way down to the SW corner of the state…and then move eastward. That’s what we were watching. We were going to watch the storms develop and then follow them into OKC. After waiting all day long, we got word from the NWS that a CAP was over the western and south western part of the state, meaning that storms were not going to develop. Plus, the dry-line and cold front that was suppose to move east out of Texas during the early afternoon, was still stationary in Texas. Without the dry-line, no storms were going to form.
Our information told us there would be no storms forming until the cold front caught up with the dry-line. Once that happens, a squall line would be developing and move east across the state. With this squall line, large hail, high winds and tornadoes were possible. With that in mind, we decided to head back to the city, especially since our chances for severe weather would come early on Sunday morning. We all headed back and waited for the squall line. I didn’t sleep very well, knowing I would be up very early on Sunday, watching the storms. Sure enough, at around 2 am, my weather radio alert went off and woke me up. I stayed up to watch the weather and found out the squall line just had winds up to 40 mph and small hail….no tornado threat. Once I heard that, I went back to sleep.
I was up at 7:30 Sunday morning and got ready for church. I was having to leave church early because our REACT team had an event that we were going to provide traffic control for. The event, the Red Bud Classic, is always held in Nichols Hills and our team always helps out with traffic during the run. I was so tired and so sleepy from not getting much sleep the night before, I struggled to stay coherent. I made it through the event and then went home. I was almost too tired to eat. I hung around the house the rest of the evening and went to bed early.
One thing I will say is Oklahoma weather is very unpredictable. Woodward, Oklahoma and Salina Kansas got hit hard with tornadoes. The OKC metro area was very fortunate this time around. All the ingredients were in place for a while...and if the dry-line had moved eastward like the weather models had predicted, the OKC metro area would be cleaning up lots of damage. With the dry-line out in east Texas, the front behind it and the CAP that was over SW Oklahoma (When the CAP is in place, it keeps severe weather from developing), that kept the majority of Oklahoma from having a major tornado outbreak.
I would much rather have the fore casters tell me to be weather aware and nothing happen, then to not know ahead of time and have major storms move into the metro with little to no warning.
http://www.centralokreact.org/
