Once a storm is past, it’s virtually impossible to sneak ahead of it again. But I was in luck that day.
The month started slow without much in the way of tornado activity. A brief flurry of storminess occurred as the atmosphere perked up around May 11 and 12, but most of the storms were hailers. That was around the time Aaron arrived in Oklahoma City. Without much to do, we passed the hours driving around the area.
As soon as I rolled into town, it became clear that everyone—Dalia, the front desk associate at the La Quinta on Southwest 119th Street; Mark, the waiter at the Waffle House; Amy at the barbershop on North Broadway Street—had their own tornado story. I felt like I was standing on a solemn battleground. Residents knew to hold their breath during the month of May.
The next day began in Guymon, a small farm town in the Oklahoma Panhandle. I knew it would be the first “real” chase day we’d have . Aaron and I munched on stale blueberry muffins from the hotel’s continental breakfast while I pored over early morning data.By lunchtime Aaron and I were on the western border of Oklahoma, where a foreboding red bullseye had been drawn in midday severe weather outlooks. A rare PDS, or particularly dangerous situation, tornado watch was in effect.
That’s when I realized my rookie mistake: I had actually fallen behind the storm. Once a storm is past, it’s virtually impossible to sneak ahead of it once again. The next hour proved a futile fumble of traffic jams and receding clouds. We exited the highway just after 6:00 p.m., turning south and rolling along the undulating hills of Oklahoma State Highway 283. Heavy rain was coming down, but radar data implied it was about to end, and I was moments away from encountering the strongest thunderstorm of my life.
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