Page 86 of Through the Storms

Her gaze immediately went to Chloe’s long dark hair, but she forced herself to look away. The last thing she wanted was for Chloe to catch her staring.Shit.She’d planned on sprinting across the parking lot at the last minute and hopping on board right before they were scheduled to leave. Whatever was happening likely put an end to that idea.

Oakley lifted her arm and waved at Riley. She’d been spotted. There was no way she could pretend not to notice. Chloe glanced in her direction and then quickly turned away.

Ouch.That hurt. Riley sighed. There was no sense stalling, so she pushed off the wall. With a casual stride, she made her way across the parking lot. Was it obvious she was trying to look chill? Who cared? She just needed to concentrate on not puking.

When Riley arrived at the group, she considered standing as far from Chloe as she could but soon realized that would put her directly across from Chloe. Instead, she moved to the same side of the circle as Chloe but put several people between them.

“Okay, looks like we’re all here now,” Oakley said.

Riley hadn’t meant to hold everyone up because of her stupidity.No.Regardless of what happened next, she’d never believe sleeping with Chloe was stupid.

“We wanted to talk to you before we depart,” Oakley said. “We’ve received a report from the Storm Prediction Center—the one in Norman. They’ve issued a level five risk for severe storms. It’s the highest level.”

“But that likely doesn’t tell you much,” Asher added. “Let me break it down for you. The first three levels specify that isolated, scattered, or numerous severe storms arepossible.The key word being possible. Level four states that widespread severe storms are likely, while level five declares that widespread severe storms are expected.”

Riley bit her lip as she concentrated on Asher’s words.Expectedsounded close to a certainty to her.

“Does that mean that there will definitely be tornadoes?” Peggy asked.

“Good question,” Oakley said. “The likelihood is much greater but still no guarantees. That’s why we continue to study tornadoes.” Oakley pointed over her shoulder. “Today, there are more potential opportunities to the north, but we’ve decided not to go that direction.”

“We’re playing the long game,” Britt said.

Oakley nodded as Britt spoke. “What she means is, Friday and Saturday are shaping up to be big.” Oakley paused and scanned the crowd. “It could be massive.”

“Care to define massive?” Sandy called out.

“Really big.” Oakley smiled. “Seriously, we can’t be certain. There’s no indication that it will rival April 27, 2011, but we’re monitoring it closely. I just got off the phone with Lana, and she’ll be feeding us the latest information.” Oakley grinned. “It helps having connections with the local weather woman.”

Asher put his hand on his sister’s shoulder. “Oak, I doubt that many of our guests have a clue of the significance of April 27.”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. April 27, 2011, shattered the previous record for most tornadoes in a twenty-four-hour span. The record had stood since 1974, with one hundred forty-eight. Anyone want to hazard a guess at how many there were on the 27th?”

“Two hundred and thirteen,” someone called out.

Oakley pointed her thumb upward.

“Two hundred and eighty,” Riley guessed.

Oakley jacked her thumb higher.

A few murmurs spread through the crowd.

“Three hundred and twenty,” Sandy said.

Again Oakley lifted her thumb to the sky. “Try three hundred and sixty.”

Holy shit.That was more than double the previous record. Riley struggled to wrap her mind around it.

“The other thing you should know,” Britt said, “is that the third-highest total happened in 2020 and the fourth in 2021. There are theories that as our climate changes, the phenomenon of extremely active days is becoming more commonplace.”

“With that said,” Oakley added, “plan on a lighter day of chasing today because we want to be in the best position heading into Friday. We’re going to load up now and chase for a few hours. Then we’ll likely stop for lunch before we head south.”

“Are you going to take the Oakanator out tomorrow?” Chloe asked. Her voice held a note of fear or maybe it was just Riley’s imagination.

“I’m afraid not,” Oakley said. “That little, shall we say, fender bender in the ditch yesterday bent up the cannon, so the Oakanator is temporarily out of commission.”

Riley thought she heard Chloe say,good, but she couldn’t be sure.