NORMAN — Maria Oyarce attended the National Weather Festival in Norman on Saturday because she’s ... well ... a “weather junkie.”
“I’m interested in storm chasers, weather and weather vehicles,” she said. “I’ve always been interested in weather since the movie ‘Twister.’”
Oyarce moved to Oklahoma from Maryland because she’s passionate about weather. She also has an interest in photography and hopes to bring her two passions together someday in a career.
Oyarce is not alone. She was one of many “weather junkies” at the annual weather festival hosted by the National Weather Center at 120 David L Boren Blvd.
Not everyone attending the annual Weather Festival was a “weather junkie” or a “weather geek” — the nickname for some professionals in the weather industry who are particularly passionate about their work.
The festival had family activities for children and people of all ages. Weather-related organizations and activities in central Oklahoma were featured, along with hourly weather balloon launches, children’s activities, storm research vehicle displays, amateur radio demonstrations, a Storm Chaser Car Show and weather-related information and products.
Folks passionate about weather came to Norman from near and far, either to participate or to see the latest in weather and storm chasing gadgets and technology.
Take, for example, high-definition video. Jake Chambers is with Storm Video Research High Definition, better known as SVRHD, a company out of Moore founded in 2004 by Lawrence McEwen.
McEwen started recording lightning using security cameras. He wanted to see how lightning strikes. That interest expanded as he increased the use of technology in recording weather events.
Since 2008, McEwen has been an extreme storm chaser.
Chambers said they chase storms and make high-def videos, which they market to television stations and other sources. But the videos also provide valuable research for contractors and builders who want to make structures that are safer and better able to “weather” Oklahoma storms.
Richard Savage and John Jackson are self-described “weather nuts” from Wichita Falls. Jackson is a storm spotter. They came to see the latest in storm chasing equipment.
Matt Murnam is interested in weather photography and art. He lives and works in Norman doing graphic design and art. He stopped by David Holland’s booth to chat about how to best photograph clouds.
“I just got some advice,” Murnam said.
An Oklahoma artist living in Oklahoma City, Holland photographs clouds from a variety of angles and then paints them. He takes multiple pictures with different exposures to reveal how shadow and light play on the clouds. In choosing colors for his artwork, he said he stays very close to actual colors. He works in oil pastel, pencil, and pen and ink.
“Swirl Girl” is a senior majoring in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma.
“I am a tornado,” she said. “My job is to make sure people are prepared for tornadoes.”
Like many of the other weather superheroes on hand to meet kids at the festival, Swirl Girl hopes to make Oklahoma’s children safer through education.
Swirl Girl has been teaching kids and their parents for three years to “Get in — away from doors and windows; Get down — Low to the ground ...” and to “Cover up — protect from flying debris.”
Mike Smith, an OU meteorology graduate from 1974, is an author and senior vice president of AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions of Wichita, Kan. He sold autographed copies of his $24.95 book, “Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather,” for $10 at the festival because he wanted OU students to be able to afford them.
As he spoke to The Transcript, Smith kept up a continued stream of book signings.
“We have tamed the weather, we haven’t conquered it,” he said. “In Joplin, because of some poor procedures, the warning system didn’t work the way it should have, and so we lost 162 precious lives.”
But Smith said that, historically, the early warnings we have now save lives that would otherwise be lost.
“We probably saved 300 lives in Joplin,” he said.
In 1947, the Woodward tornado killed 101 people, he said. The May 3 tornado that ripped through Moore and Midwest City in 1999 destroyed many more homes but took fewer lives. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a total of 74 tornadoes reportedly touched down in two states within less than 21 hours on that date.
“The strongest tornado, rated a maximum EF-5 on the Fujita Tornado Scale, tracked for nearly an hour and a half along a 38-mile path from Chickasha through south Oklahoma City and the suburbs of Bridge Creek, Newcastle, Moore, Midwest City and Del City,” NOAA reported.
And yet the total dead numbered only 46 — a terrible loss, but small by comparison to storm events prior to the early warning systems we have now.
In both states, there were an estimated 800 injured and more than 8,000 homes damaged or destroyed on May 3, 1999, NOAA reported.
Smith is a passionate advocate of bringing back public storm shelters and has made speeches on the topic across the nation.
He thinks it’s time for public officials to “rethink public storm shelters.”
Weather lovers come in all sizes and ages. Audrey Cannon, 4, excitedly waited for Smith to sign a book for her mother, Amber Cannon of Tecumseh.
Amber said she is a weather student and Audrey has picked up the bug.
Joy Hampton 366-3539 jhampton@ normantranscript.com Like me on Facebook
