Twister: Calm Before The Storm

First Chase As A Team

     A few weeks after Jona's had taken Jo out on the town, the day had finally come for them to all go out on their first storm chase, as an assignment. Everyone was highly excited about this, especially Jo. She would be the ring leader for the entire team, putting Rabbit as her navigator. Jonas had helped Sanders and the others to load up the back of the van with all of their weather equipment and cameras. Finally, it was time for them to try to catch the nearby storm, so Jonas and the others climbed into the back of the beat up van. Jo climbed into the driver's seat, Bill calling shotgun. She drove off onto the Oklahoma highway to the nearby storm in Edmond, Oklahoma. ''Haynes, what have we got on the radar?'' Jo called to her, trying to keep her focus on the road. Haynes came to her senses and looked at the radar screen. A small little supercell was beginning to form near Edmond. It appeared to be growing stronger and it was healthy looking. ''I can see a healthy looking small supercell on radar. Looks like there is some rotation.'' She replies. Jo let out a smile. Maybe they were going to catch this one! A fire began to light up in her bones. ''Wonderful! Haynes, do you think we are going to be able to catch this one?'' She asks. Haynes looks at the radar again, then she turns to Rabbit, who was sitting behind her. ''Yeah we should be able to catch this one if we hurry. Rabbit should know where the best routes to this storm are.'' Haynes answered. Jo nodded her head.

    ''Rabbit.'' She says, ''What is the quickest and most safest route to this storm?'' Rabbit fumbles through his map books and tries to find the best route. ''Yes boss. Uh the quickest and most safest route would be to just continue north on I-35 and before you know it, we will be in Edmond and from there we should set up on S sooner Rd.'' He continues on, ''If we need to escape, our escape route will be on E charter oak Rd.'' He then closes up the map book. ''Thank you Rabbit. Hang in there guys, we should see a tornado here soon.'' Jo tells the gang. Not long afterwards they arrived in Edmond. But it wasn't peaceful at all! Hail began to fall from the heavens, and the sky turned an eerie green color. Bill peered out of the windshield and noticed the clouds were beginning to rotate. ''If this storm is gonna do anything, it's going to be soon.'' He tells Jo. Not a moment later, Jo could hear the city of Edmond's tornado sirens sound off. It was an eerie sight for sure. Jo continued to drive towards S sooner Rd, hearing the sirens wail in the distance. ''Tornado warning!'' Haynes shouted. ''Beltzer, come look at this!'' She calls to her boyfriend. ''Well, I'll be damned! We've got one!'' He replies in excitement. ''A tornado has been sighted just outside of Edmond. We should be able to see it in a moment.'' Haynes tells Jo. ''Alright guys, let's get this thing! Everyone, set up!'' She instructs everyone.

    A few minutes afterwards, Jo turns the van on S sooner road. She could see the tornado many miles away tearing up a field. It was a small, grey, stovepipe tornado! ''Alright guys, let's set up, this is our big moment!'' Jo tells her team, excited to see the tornado. Jo climbs out of the van and observes the tornado twisting and turning, it was so beautiful! Nothing at all like the nighttime tornado that hit during Dusty's party nearly a month beforehand. Bill stands next to Jo. He too, was in awe of the tornado's gorgeous sight. Jonas and Jessie helped get some shots of the tornado's fury out upon the open Oklahoma plains, Beltzer and Haynes continued to observe the storm on the radar screen just to make sure that they were still in a safe spot to get some data, Rabbit and Sanders were taking some video of the tornado, and Jo, Bill, and Dusty were measuring the storm using the weather instruments that were provided for them by the professor. The tornado caused no damage to anything around it until it changed coarse and swirled towards a farmhouse. Jo's stomach turned. She went from being overjoyed to being afraid for the people inside the farmhouse. ''Good lord I hope whomever lives inside that farmhouse took shelter.'' Jo says, her voice full of shock. Jo watched the tornado inch closer and closer towards the farmhouse and soon it was no more! The tornado had blew it apart. 

   Haynes had observed the radar again. Then she peers into the open field at the twister. It appeared to have stalled. Bill had noticed it too. ''Jo, I think we should leave. This doesn't feel right.'' Bill tells her, turning towards her. Jo looked into his grey-blue eyes. He was right. Beltzer breaks the silence and tells them, ''Guys! We seriously need to leave right now! This bad boy appears to be changing coarse and is heading right for us, if we don't go now, he'll bury us!'' Jo looks at her teammates. ''You're right. Everyone back into the van. We'll search for another route and continue to track it.'' She commands them. Jo climbed back into the van and waited for everyone to pile back into the van. Once everyone was in, she sped off towards the escape route that Rabbit had given her, on E charter oak Rd. Unfortunately, as soon as she reached the escape route, the twister was gone. ''Okay. I can't see the tornado anymore. I think we are gonna call it a day.'' Bill tells Jo. ''Yeah you are right. Besides, it's starting to get late anyway.'' She replies.

    Jo began to drive off towards the highway, she should be in Norman within the next hour or so. While on the way back to The University Of Oklahoma, she could hear everyone get excited about their chase today. ''Today's storm was awesome you guys, it had my adrenaline rushing! Woooo!'' Dusty shouted. Sanders let out a laugh. ''Yeah it was great! Totally hope we get to do something like this again!'' He then proceeds to continue watching the footage that he captured of the tornado. ''I think we've done a great job at getting data on this monster.'' Haynes chimed in. Jo let out a smile to herself. She enjoyed this. She turns to Bill, ''What did you think of today Bill?'' She asked him. Bill lets out a chuckle. ''I think today went wonderful. We should get some good data out of this chase I think.'' Two hours went by and everyone had began to go to their dorms. Jo and Bill had just finished talking with their professor, she would check back in with them in the morning to let everyone know how they have done. ''So what now?'' Bill asked her. ''Nothing much. Just going to head on to my dorm. I have to get up early tomorrow.'' Jo replies. Bill thought to himself, maybe he'd ask her out to dinner. ''Hey uh Jo?'' Bill says to her as they were walking to their dorms. ''Yes, Bill?'' She answers. ''I was wondering if tomorrow night you'd like to go to dinner with me?'' He asks her. Jo blushed. She thought it was sweet of him to ask. ''Sure Bill! I'd love to. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight.'' Bill let out a smile. ''I'll see ya tomorrow Jo. Goodnight.'' He then walks to his dorm room. Tomorrow is going to be great! He thinks to himself. Then he climbs into his bed and drifts off into a deep sleep.