Tipping Point

By Charles O Wing

Many years ago, I had a thought about what would happen if an Asteroid did hit the Earth and who would be involved in making sure Mankind would survive. After over two years of research, I was stunned by what would be involved. The things that had to happen depended on strong people. I began this story with the obvious beginning of the weather first. With each following chapter fear grew within myself and it was very hard to stop writing. I couldn’t use just one or two main characters with this story either. Each page had it’s own impact but followed a well defined story-line too. It is my hope that the readers come away with an education of our sciences and a promise of our continued existence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796087598

Charles O Wing

Charles Wing has spent most of his life in the nursing field. It gave him an insight into how people react to situations that had been thrust on them. But his greatest influence came when he spent a great number of years in Ontario, Canada, and became involved with Celtic culture. Charles took up learning to play bagpipes and studied the myths and legends of that culture. The music was his greatest inspiration, whether it was Irish, Scottish, or Welsh, and it allowed him to use his imagination to see things of long ago. Some were real and others just fantasy. Charles have tried to combine life experiences with those fantasies and tell a story as real as he could. Therefore, his saying "BELIEVE IT BECOMES REAL" has become his hallmark for writing.

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Copyright © 2020 by Charles O. Wing.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2020902813

ISBN:                Hardcover                   978-1-7960-8749-9

                          Softcover                    978-1-7960-8750-5

                          eBook                         978-1-7960-8759-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 02/10/2020

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CONTENTS

Synopsis

Demon Hunter

Ashes To Ashes

Ice and Rock

Land Lost, Land Gained

Broken Infrastructure

Un Mandate

Into The Mud

Shake, Rattle, Roll, and Wind

New Orders

Global Outreach

Weather or Not

The Sea of Tears

The Heat of The Moment

A Return to The Midwest

The Shard of Surprises

The Southern Weather Conference

Extraterrestrial Life?

The New Java Sea

Geneva’s Concerns

Deep Blue Sea

Peabody’s Condition

Eastern Antarctica

Stewart’s Concerns

A Return and A Parting of Ways

SYNOPSIS

M any years ago, I had a thought about what would happen if an asteroid did hit Earth and who would be involved in making sure mankind would survive. After over two years of research, I was stunned by what would be involved. The things that had to happen depended on strong people. I began this story with the obvious beginning of the weather first. With each following chapter, fear grew within myself, and it was very hard to stop writing. I couldn’t use just one or two main characters with this story either. Each page had its own impact but followed a well-defined storyline too. It is my hope that the readers come away with an education of our sciences and a promise of our continued existence.

Charles O. Wing

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DEMON HUNTER

J ust as our season had ended, we got word that our grant for the new personnel carrier had come through. Actually, it was a war surplus truck that we had been wanting ever since we saw its capabilities on one of the weather channel shows. Its design caught our imaginations with its high stance and the V-bottom design to ward off mines on the battlefield. We thought it could work well for us here against the wind effects of tornados, with a few modifications.

From the time we received word that we could have the truck, we had been putting together the extra funding for the modifications. The truck arrived in December, and shortly after, the first of many grants helped us to begin the modifications.

Our first change was to have remote booms that could be swung out to stabilize the unit, but these would only be effective if the truck was pointed into the wind direction to begin with. Then came the electronics for remote TVs all around the truck and other sensors that we needed. The wiring for all that was a nightmare, but we managed to get it finished. Our crew was now finishing the last of the computer hookups for recording what we were seeing and sensing. It would also include a wide-range radio and communication system to warn others of what we were finding. We had wanted to add a Doppler radar unit, but its bulk was just too much; we would have to leave that to another storm chaser truck to deal with. But we would have a live feed from that other truck’s radar.

Already it was just after the first of February, and still the truck wasn’t quite ready for the road. The crew had been working late every day, and soon we would have to be out and searching for the first storms of the season. The season promised to be a busy one this year, but that was not unusual. We normally spent the winter months searching for grants and talking with our colleagues about things we had discovered last season and ways to search for different approaches to solving the mysteries of the weather. However, each year seemed like it presented new challenges for us, and climate change was on everyone’s minds these days.

I had just left my office here at the University of Oklahoma and crossed over to our weather lab. A light snow was falling, and I hurried my steps to get back inside again. One of my new grad students for the year called out my name as I entered the building. Dr. Stewart, do you have a minute to look over the truck?

I followed him around to the front of the truck and was surprised to see where a name had been painted on it. What this? I asked.

We all thought a name would be appropriate for it, and this is what we came up with. What do you think?

I turned to look at it again, and slowly, the name sounded off my lips in a whisper, Demon Hunter. All of you came up with this? I asked.

Yes. Sometimes the weather can seem like a demon, so we wanted to add this to the truck.

I like it, Tank. Now, how are the other problems coming along?

We should have the last of the computer problems worked out by the end of the week.

Good. Keep me informed, and I’ll be in the lab for the rest of the day. I hurried off to talk with my other colleague, Sam Applegate.

I found him on the second floor talking by video phone hookup to NASA. They had just launched a new satellite for us two weeks ago, and he was checking on the feed from it. I waited until he had hung up the phone connection before talking. Sam, any problems on their end?

No. We’re good to go. Have you looked at the latest downloads from NASA today?

No. Anything of interest?

There could be. The El Niño is starting to move south again, and the ocean temperature is going up.

Already? It seems early for that to happen.

That’s what I thought. We might be moving out into the field sooner than we thought.

Then they better have that truck ready this week. What about the others? Have you informed them yet?

That’s the next thing on my list of to do here today.

I walked away thinking of all we had yet to do to get ready for this season of storm chasing. When I looked up, I was among the other trucks we used for this purpose. Larry was tinkering with the Doppler radar on the second truck. Is the radar ready to go?

He turned and held up his thumb on his right hand without saying anything. I nodded and moved on again.

Soon, I entered the offices at the back of the lab and went directly for the latest NASA photos from space. I began looking at them before sitting down, searching for a chair with my left hand. Karen saw my mind-set and helped me find a chair and waited for me to say something, but I was lost in the photos.

Something didn’t look right. These could have been from two months from now when we were in the middle of storm chasing. I kept flipping between the photos looking for a reason behind the strange weather patterns.

Sam came in shortly after and was making calls on his cell phone. I stood and went over to him. What’s the jet stream doing, Sam? These photos are so strange for this time of year.

That’s what I thought too. The northern jet has retreated to the north, and the southern one is moving north.

But that’s impossible this time of year!

But the facts show otherwise. But that’s not all. The pressure gradients all across the Northern Pacific are all in a jumble too. Ships at sea are reporting strange weather out there too.

Has anyone else reported these readings to Washington?

Yes. The Internet is full of people talking about what is going on.

This isn’t good, Sam.

I just finished sending the messages to the rest of the team, and they will all arrive in the next two days. As soon as the truck is finished, we can get out on the road and see what’s in it for us this year.

All right. I want to look over some of the new data, and I’ll talk with you a little later. I returned to the desk, and Karen came over to help me sort through the Internet information that was available.

For the next three hours, we went over all that we could find, and even the other sciences such as geology were talking about what was going on with Earth’s climate. How they affected the climate was still a mystery, but many had their own thoughts on how it was all tied together. For myself, I understood that some of the volcanic activity of the Pacific Rim did in fact effect what happened to us here, and this year, the activity was up sharply in the southern hemisphere. Many blamed mankind’s use of petrochemicals as the main cause, but of this I was doubtful. The changes came too quick, and in the historical past, it had happened before man could have any influence on the climate. Sure, man did cause part of the change, but nature had its own way of making changes too and in a much stronger way.

Sam came into the office after being on his phone almost all morning long. What do you think of what came in today? he asked.

The data supports a bad season for us this year. But trying to find the reasons behind it is still unclear.

That’s what I came up with too.

Did the new suits from NASA come in yet?

They did. But why pressure suits?

When we enter the large tornados this season, I want to be prepared for the large pressure drops I think we’ll see. If we can keep the pressure inside the truck lower than the outside, it should help to keep the truck stable even in the wildest tornados.

I was wondering about that pressure system you had installed. Now I can see your thinking behind it.

I expect to see more F5s this season than in any previous years.

I hope you are wrong about that.

Tomorrow, I want my crew back here in the lab, to make sure they understand how the suits work. We are going to be in the main storms, and it’s no time to not understand what’s going on with them. We will suit up and go over the safety features of them.

You really think that those pressures will drop that drastically where you will need those suits?

I do. The chances for the kind of pressures I expect to see this year are beyond anything the others could imagine.

Then that explains the supercharger for the engine too.

We will need it to keep the engine running.

How low a millibar count do you expect to see?

I wouldn’t doubt that we see something below eight hundred.

But that’s crazy. It has never been recorded that low for a tornado.

You’ve seen the reports, make your own guess.

You might be right, but how many of these superstorms are you expecting?

From what I’ve seen in the reports, I would expect to see around five of them.

How big do you think they will be?

I would say two miles or more across and a debris field of over fifty miles around the storm path. They could stay on the ground for several states too.

I hope you’re wrong about this. But it’s better to be prepared than not.

If I’m right, we could throw out the old scale again and begin to look for a new way to measure these storms.

Both men then began to go over the most recent data again and look for something that was the trigger for the changes they expected. Hour by hour, new data came in and added to their fear for the coming year.

Late in the afternoon, while drinking coffee and reading another report, Stewart turned to Sam and said, Did you feel that?

I did. We must have had a small quake of around 2 on the Richter scale.

Call and see what it was and where.

He picked up the phone and made a call to the Geology Department. After a few minutes, he hung up and turned back to me. That was a quake in Gallup, New Mexico. It was a 3.6 and about two miles deep.

Even Earth is changing, my friend. We had better be on guard this year for certain.

They both sat in silence for the next hour until they decided to go home and set things in motion there for the coming season, as it looked like they would be going out early.

The next four days were a whirlwind of details and last-minute work to make sure they were ready for the road again. The new truck was now as ready as they could make it. All the sensors were working, and the computers seemed like they could handle all that was needed of them too. Although the truck was large, with all the equipment, they only had room for six of the crew on board. But it would be enough to handle the data collection.

The snow had ended a few days before, and now the early spring winds came up to add some more discomfort to the storm chasers. But they were familiar with this weather at this time of year. The hard part was leaving those they loved and knew behind them while they went in search of the expected storms; it was dangerous work.

Dr. Stewart had set their departure for the following morning, and he would set out for the site where most previous storms had developed in the past. That was about two hundred miles to the north in Kansas. But if something came up farther south, it wouldn’t take them long to return to the new area and deploy.

Their group would consist of the new truck, the Doppler radar truck, a backup computer truck, and two camera trucks. All personal belongings would travel in the camera trucks, as would any extra gear. In all, the crew would be fifteen members.

That night they had a farewell party just off campus, and it ran a little late. But the food and drinks were among a tight company that knew each other very well. Their lives depended on each other when they were on the road searching for storms.

When Dr. Stewart arrived the next morning at four, he found everyone there and ready to go. Tank would be driving the new truck, as he had experience with them in Afghanistan. They all went through the inspection of the equipment before setting out about an hour later.

It was still dark outside when they pulled away from the campus and headed north out of the city. The miles were put behind them as the daylight finally slipped over the horizon. The day broke partly cloudy with a light warm breeze from the west.

They passed through the low rolling hills and lost track of the time as they neared the border of Kansas. Once across, they would turn to the west and make for the Colorado border. The down sloping winds here seemed to catch the warm air coming from the Gulf of Mexico, which in turn caused the tornados that formed at random. There was never any way to know when or where they would form.

Dr. Stewart was watching a feed from a NASA satellite, the new one that had gone into orbit just over two weeks ago. This was a real-time feed, and he was concerned about what it was showing. They had a high-pressure area in the gulf and a late season low coming from the west. Both pointed to the optimal development of tornados soon; a month too early.

After entering Kansas and making their turn to the west, they were listening to some of the other storm chasers on the broadband radio that connected them all. Most seemed excited about the coming prospects for early storm development this year. Dr. Stewart knew what it might cost in life and property; he had seen many years of the results.

Around ten thirty, they arrived in the area where they could wait and watch. They stopped at a roadside diner for a welcome meal; most had left this morning without eating beforehand. Stewart walked over to the Doppler truck and had them set up for a sweep before going for their meal. He asked Tank to bring him something to eat out here, while he waited for the results.

The diner was just outside a small town of about two thousand people. It had been hit by an F2 tornado about three years before, and they welcomed the storm chasers.

Before Tank returned with Stewart’s meal, they had the Doppler going and looked at the incoming sweep from it. It still remained quiet, and Stewart asked them to hook into the other Dopplers in the new grid that had been set up on this side of the Rocky Mountains. A few minutes later, he had the current sweeps of the Dopplers and seemed in deep thought about the lack of developments yet.

His one thought was Tomorrow, we will be running for our lives, if I’m correct.

He walked away from the truck and looked to the western skies first and then turned to look south. He let his nose sniff the air looking for signs of moisture. Then went back to the front of the Doppler truck and leaned against the fender. About then, Tank returned with his meal and coffee. Anything yet, Dr. Stewart?

No, not yet, Tank. But it’s coming.

A little later, Stewart returned to the Demon Hunter and scanned the pressure readings from the Pacific again. He followed that with what was coming from the Gulf of Mexico too. His station in the truck had a feed from the Doppler stations running continuously, as were the feeds from the new satellite.

Stewart took his cell phone from his belt and dialed Sam back at the university. He picked up on the second ring, and Stewart asked what he was seeing there. He replied it was looking better this afternoon. The National Weather Service was predicting thunderstorms for Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. Right now, it looked like there was only a 20 percent chance of a tornado development.

That’s what I’m seeing too, Sam. Perhaps we came out too early.

Don’t doubt yourself, Stewart. You’ve always had a feel for the weather, and I think you will find it as your best instrument to find your superstorms this year.

Thanks for your support, Sam. I’ll call again tomorrow.

After hanging up, he left the Demon Hunter and went to the diner for more coffee. All they had to do for now was wait. It made it hard to relax.

Overnight the rains began, causing the dry dirt to float into the air before settling back again. In the distance, they could hear the thunder before the first light of the day. Stewart got out of his bed at the motel behind the diner and walked to the window. He could see the flashes of lightning in the distance. It was time to get dressed; perhaps he could shower before things got out of hand today.

A little later, as he was having a cup of coffee at the diner, his cell phone rang; it was Sam. I thought you should know that the Weather Service has upgraded their tornado warning to 40 percent.

Thanks, Sam. I knew it has changed just by looking outside this morning. I’ll keep you updated on what we come up with.

Good luck, Stewart.

Other members of the crew began to straggle into the diner, and Stewart told them the latest from Sam. I want us ready to go in a half hour. I’m going to check on our readings now.

He took an extra cup of coffee with him and returned to the Demon Hunter. After settling at his station, he looked over the latest Doppler readings and then the satellite feed. It was coming together like he thought it would. Although he doubted that it would produce the supertornados just yet, it was the start of the season.

Stewart had on his headset listening to the other chatter on their radio feed. He turned in his seat as other members of his crew entered the truck and settled at their stations. Up front, Tank started the engine and was letting it warm up. One by one, the other trucks reported that they were ready to move. Now, Stewart looked one more time at the Doppler readings and called back over their radio feed to move out to the northeast. He was beginning to see a hook developing about twenty miles away.

They would be behind that storm marker and had no time to catch up with it, but they could monitor its movement. Perhaps more would develop within the next few hours. As they drove away from the diner, Stewart was now looking at the infrared and water vapor feeds from the satellite.

Suddenly, he called for Tank to turn east and hold in that direction for a while. His instinct was working for him now as he continued to look for what the storm front would do.

The sun had yet to show this morning, and they were all following Stewart’s directions. They ate up the next twenty miles quickly, and then Stewart asked for Tank to look for a spot to pull over and wait again. He rarely let his eyes look around as his attention was on all the data coming in.

Outside, the sun had finally cleared the horizon but remained hidden by the heavy clouds all around them. A small F1 tornado did form to their north, but it dissipated quickly without doing any damage. What had Stewart’s attention was a cloud wall forming behind them at the moment. He was watching the Doppler as it began to form its hook pattern. He called for the other trucks to move on and form up to the south of them. Then he told Tank to prepare to deploy the Demon Hunter for a possible stronger tornado to form behind them. Tank waited until the other trucks had left the area and then turned the truck into the storm wall. He swung the booms out and stabilized the truck. This was their first test of the truck, and all of them wanted to see how it handled the storm.

The pressures weren’t low enough for them to get into their pressure suits, but it would give them an idea of what to expect. Time seemed to slow down for them again as they waited to see what would happen.

Stewart sent a warning to the Weather Service and watched his feeds closely. Tank had the best view of what was happening outside, and he reported over the intercom that he could see that the clouds were beginning to circle and form up. Then he said that the wind was increasing around them and hail was falling.

Suddenly, Tank said he could see a funnel form about two miles away and it was headed for them. Stewart was now checking to see what kind of track it would take. It seemed to follow the normal pattern, moving to the northeast. One of the other crew members said that it had a wind speed of about twenty miles an hour over the ground. They now waited for it to overtake them and let the sensors read what it was doing.

The metal body of the Demon Hunter began to echo the hail and rain bouncing off it, but it remained stable in the high winds. All at once, they were in the tornado, and readings were being recorded as they waited for it to pass. They felt nothing of the winds inside the truck.

When Stewart looked up from his screens, he saw a few of his team begin rubbing their ears. Now I hope you understand the reason behind the pressure suits. When we encounter one of the large storms, you will be glad you have them.

The storm moved on, and now they were all going over the data. Stewart radioed the National Weather Service about the tornado and gave a preliminary report on their findings and the direction the tornado was heading. He told them he thought it was a strong F2 and to prepare any towns in its path for it.

His attention was now on watching it move away and for any that might be forming behind them again. Up front, Tank had retracted the booms and was ready to move again. The other trucks reported in and asked how the new truck had handled the storm. It couldn’t have been better, Stewart reported.

To the south of them, several small F1s had formed, but they were no threats at this time. Lightning flashed all around the storm chasers, and rain fell hard on the open countryside. Tank turned the Demon Hunter south to rejoin the other trucks, and the other members inside the truck were going over the new data from the storm.

Already it was noon, and the day still held promise of more storms to form. The Demon Hunter parked alongside the other trucks at another roadside diner. The crew quickly went inside to get something to eat before they were called upon to move to another location.

When Tank returned to the truck, Stewart was still watching the Doppler returns. He had brought him a hamburger and coffee. Thanks, Tank. We might get another chance yet today. Are you ready for it?

Yes, Dr. Stewart.

However, their chances dwindled as the afternoon moved along. The cold western storm pushed in driving the warm air mass farther to the south, and the chances for tornado development disappeared.

But it didn’t matter, as they had a lot of the data to go over from the one storm that the Demon Hunter had gone through that morning. Late in the afternoon, they had to move on to another location that had a motel for them for the night. They found one about ten miles to the east and settled in to wait for the next day.

It took another week before Stewart began to see another chance for storm development. The development of a new high-pressure ridge in the Gulf of Mexico was pushing north, and a small storm moving south from British Columbia was bringing the combinations for thunderstorm development again, along with the possibilities for tornados to develop. It wasn’t a strong chance, but anything was now welcome.

Stewart was reading the pressure differences between the two fronts and then checking the newest satellite feeds. He was giving the chances for tornados less than 20 percent this time.

Stewart looked up when Tank entered the Demon Hunter. Tank? What’s the name of this town?

Hanston. Why?

Where’s that at?

We’re about twenty-five miles north of Dodge City on Highway 156.

Can you get us north of here, say, on Highway 70?

Sure. We can take Highway 183 and be in Hayes in a little over an hour.

Good. Let the others know and let’s see if we can be there by late afternoon.

Tank took off to let the others know of the move, while Stewart returned to looking at the new storm patterns forming. His own packing was forgotten, and he looked for new information coming in.

They were a long way north for tornado development this time of year, but Stewart was going by his instinct this time. Most storm chasers would still be in Oklahoma this time of year or Texas. Stewart still felt that what he was looking for would come early and farther north this year.

When Tank returned about twenty minutes later, he told Stewart that he had packed his things and they were aboard one of the camera trucks. Thanks, Tank. How soon before the others are ready?

We should be going in about another ten minutes.

Good. You know, Tank, when you get a little more experience with what I think is coming, I’ll sign off on your doctorate.

Thank you, Dr. Stewart.

Don’t thank me, my friend. You have earned it.

One by one, each of the crew settled into their positions within the personnel carrier. Tank was on the line with the other trucks, and as soon as he heard that they were ready, he pulled out of the motel and back on the road.

True to his word, they arrived in Hayes an hour and five minutes later. They pulled around to the west side of the city and found another motel to stay at for a while.

One thing about being in this part of the country, you could always find good food and a lot of it. After eating, Stewart called Sam again to let him know where they were and to see if he had anything new for them.

Sam replied, Aren’t you a little far north this time?

I don’t think so, Sam. Now, what have you got for me?

There is a front coming out of Mongolia, and it should arrive on the west coast by early next week.

Can you send me an updated satellite photo of it?

You’ll have it in a few minutes. Be careful, I think this is the storm series you were afraid of.

We’ll be ready for it, Sam. Call me back if anything else comes up.

Stewart broke the connection and waited for his e-mail to chime on his computer. He turned to look around at the empty workstations in the Demon Hunter, and then his computer chimed. He quickly retrieved the e-mail from Sam and looked at the photo he had sent. Slowly, he studied the massive formation of clouds and wished that they had an infrared image as well. After a few minutes, he printed the image and continued to look at what it represented. It might just be the trigger that he had been worried about forming the massive tornados.

But he needed more information right now, and he did a search of the Southern Caribbean; it was always active this time of year, but would it push a high-pressure front far enough north?

After a while, he pushed his chair back and rubbed his eyes. They still had a lot of time to wait before conditions were right again. He decided to get out of the truck and take a walk around the area while he could.

As he climbed down from the truck, he noticed that it was already late in the day. Where did today go? he wondered. Across the parking lot, Tank waved to him. He crossed the short distance and asked, What’s going on, Tank?

The others are gathering for dinner. Do you want to join them?

Sure. Tank, it looks like our first big storm will arrive the first of next week. I want you to help me keep track of the fronts coming our way.

I’ll help in any way I can, Dr. Stewart.

Good. Now, let’s join the others.

Over dinner, Stewart explained about the large front coming out of Mongolia. Then he pointed out that a lot of the storm’s development would depend on what came north from the Caribbean. He gave the group assignments for watching both areas and broke them down into day and night shifts.

For the rest of the week, the fronts continued to develop, and they kept track of the strengths and pressure levels within the areas. Daily updates came from Sam along with new photos. He was also sending the sonobuoy readings from the Pacific and how high the waves were in front of the approaching storm front. Ship reports were also forwarded where they were, talking about the strength of the storm. It would pass just north of the Hawaiian Islands, and its track was looking like it would hit the northern coast of California in two more days. But each day, it grew in strength and size. It was now covering an area of over eight hundred miles; that was an area from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon.

Deep in the Caribbean, a high-pressure area was moving north and had already spread into the Gulf of Mexico. The jet stream was holding in an east-west pattern, and there was no sign it would change anytime soon; except where it wrapped around the low coming in from the Pacific.

Daily, Stewart could feel his heart rate jump as the two fronts came closer together. It seemed to affect the rest of the team as well.

Stewart placed a call to Sam again and asked what else was going on in the world today. The Antarctic ice shelf continues to break off, and we are still seeing an increase in the freshwater content in the southern oceans. The northern oceans aren’t as bad, but that could change too. Australia is having late season wildfires, and a couple of hurricanes have developed in the mid-Southern Pacific. Worldwide earthquakes have increased too. The whole planet is in a state of change.

Thanks for the good news now. What about the bad?

That’s all there is for the moment, Stewart. I expect you are going to be too busy for the next few days, so call me when you get clear of what’s coming.

Will do, Sam. Thanks. I’ll call when I can. Stewart hung up his cell phone and just looked straight ahead for the next few minutes, while he tried to add up all the things going on.

Then his computer chimed with another e-mail from Sam. He had another photo update on the Pacific front and one from the Gulf of Mexico. At least now he had some infrared information with them too and water vapor images. These he looked over closely and tried to measure the impact of when the two fronts would merge together.

It was now looking like they would come together within twenty-four hours, and the storms were going to merge just to the west of his position in Kansas. It was time to prepare the rest of the team for what was to come. He printed the photos and exited the truck. He knew that most of his team would be in the diner, and he went in search of them.

Inside the diner, all but the three who had been on watch overnight were having coffee and talking among themselves at one of the large tables at the back of the diner. Stewart walked up to the table and stood for a moment before they turned to see what he wanted. Then he spoke. "We are about to see what the Demon Hunter can really do, folks. Our first superstorm will be here tomorrow. I want everyone in their pressure suits in the morning and prepared to move out on the road again. These are the latest photos of the two fronts. Look them over and get yourselves ready. It’s going to be a wild ride."

Stewart settled at a nearby table and ordered coffee for himself. On the wall, a local TV station had just posted a weather warning. He watched the information scroll across the screen and thought, If only they knew how bad it’s going to get.

The next morning, Stewart was in the Demon Hunter before the sun came up. Tank had arrived just before Stewart and had coffee waiting for him. They both went over the latest information as the crew slowly began to arrive. Tank pulled up the data from the National Weather Service and was looking at what they had to say, but their own information from the satellite was far more accurate. The two fronts were merging just a little to the southwest of where they were.

When the last of the crew arrived, Stewart turned to them. It’s time to get into our pressure suits, folks. In under ten minutes, they were suited up and ready for today’s work. Tank went forward to the driver’s position and settled in his seat. This time, everyone buckled into their five-point harness. As soon as Tank heard from the other trucks that they were ready, he turned to Stewart and waited for him to tell him which way to go. Let’s just hold our position for now, Tank. But you can start your engine.

Stewart had pulled up the Doppler stations and was watching the formation of a supercell. He wasn’t sure yet if it would be the one that would form the storm he expected; it was still early morning, and his thoughts were that for the big storm to form, it would be later in the day. However, they were ready.

One of his other undergrad students was calling out pressure readings along the front, and still nothing seemed to be abnormal. Two hours later, however, the pressure readings began to go haywire and drop far below what was expected. Stewart was beginning to see several hooks along the front and called to the others that it looked like it was about to happen.

Outside, the clouds began to tower high into the morning sky, and the winds began to gust from the south at about forty miles an hour. Already, one of the Doppler stations was reporting that the pressure to the southwest of them had dropped to 27.6, and they were experiencing winds in excess of seventy miles an hour but had yet to see any funnel formations.

Stewart called to Tank to pull out and move to the west side of the city but have the other trucks hold here until they heard from him. The truck began to move, and no one spoke about what was happening; only the data was being discussed.

It took about twenty minutes to cross the small city and reach the next small town called Catherine. Stewart had Tank pull over and wait, while they watched the data stream coming in.

Ron, who ran the Doppler truck, called and said he couldn’t clear up the images. There are too many hooks and other changes on the front to get a clear picture of what was going on.

But Stewart said nothing and watched the line develop even further.