A Tornado in Ogden

[reedalson 0]

The Tornado Outbreak in Ogden and Suburbs...
By: Alson Reed/Reedalson.
Based On: A Created Outbreak of Tornadoes in his region. 
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It Was Sunny and 79 degrees in the City of Ogden.
It was August 3rd and it didn't look like it was going to rain.

On The Weather Channel, Ogden's Intellistar at 8:58am said:

" Sunny in the morning, then rain in the afternoon. High 79, Low 65.
" Today is a great day for outdoor activities
" No incidents on the freeways

Well, the Local on the 8s was correct...for a while.
Around 10:30 am, rain showers popped up around Beverly.

And quickly grew and promped the Sim N.W.S. (National Weather Service),
In New York City (Manhattan) to issue a Severe Thunderstorm Watch for
Ogden and Suburbs Effective as of 12:00 pm.

The weather got worse and the Severe Thunderstorm Watch that was in
effect for Ogden and Suburbs was now Upgraded to a
Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Ogden and Suburbs
Effective as of 1:00 pm.

7 Seconds Later, The Sim National Weather Service Super Advanced Doppler Radar, in New York City (Manhattan) had indicated Tornadic Rotation with this storm which was over Beverly at the time,
and a Tornado Warning was issued for Beverly and the surrounding cities.

15 seconds later, in Beverly... on the Rooftop of the Bank of America Building
Lies the mighty Chrysler Victory Bell Air Raid Siren--Nicknamed "Big Blue Siren" to the people of Beverly.

This is how Beverly got its first siren (and only as of this writing): In 1993, Beverly was hit by a tornado, they had NO sirens.

After the tornado, the need for a warning siren was great enough and the mayor asked the local siren
rep in the area to select a siren.

the mayor and the rep both chose the Chrysler Victory Bell Air Raid Siren, priced at $25,000 and now they had to select a site...

A week went by and the selected site was a hi-rise in downtown Beverly -- the Bank of America Building. Not too long after, they built a special slab of concrete on the balcony by the long green window and started building
the new siren...

1 year later... construction was finished, the siren was ready and brand-new.
People were trusted to the siren.

Beverly now had it's first siren, which is it's only one as well.

It was used many times and heard for miles.

The people dubbed it "Big Blue Siren."

Today was the siren's bi-weekly test (tested every 2 weeks)
and Beverly's Chrysler Air Raid Siren's Operator had already

the "Supposed" 1:00pm test of the siren was already in progess--the ignition switch was set
to "on", and a Funnel cloud was forming in the sky.

Just as Beverly's Chrysler Air Raid Siren's Operator Was About To Put His hand on a cord which activated the siren,
the police officer gave him new orders...

Officer: Wait!
Siren Operator: What?
Officer: A message from the police chief

Compressor clutch

siren Operator: (reads note)...." The Bi-Weekly Test of Beverly's Chrysler Air Raid
Siren has been delayed due to weather and a change of plans..."

Siren Operator: (reading cont)...." operate the siren in tornado warning mode for at least
3 mins or longer... do not delay."

Compressor clutch

so the siren was in tornado warning mode, which was the attack signal and the siren was heard for 2-4 miles.

The nearby cities heard the Chrysler Air Raid Siren And Took Cover.
But Not Too Long after The Attack Signal Was Heard, The Funnel Touched Down--
An EF-2 Tornado was in Beverly.

It was on the ground for --mins (3 to 15 mins), hitting Shady Grove and Lawton before it finally dissipated away.

The storm is currently moving towards Ogden, which is more than 5 mins away.

At 1:--pm, The Earlier Tornado Warning that was for Beverly was expanded to a Tornado Warning for the Ogden-Beverly Combined Areas. It Was Because of An Unstable Air Mass, Rotation Was Detected and also because of the tornado that just hit Beverly.

Meanwhile, in Ogden...

Lars Overdale Was watching One Of The Local Television Stations in Ogden - WOTS-TV, A CBS Affiliate Which Broadcasts on
UHF Channel 19,

which was showing their Saturday Afternoon Movie--Batman Strikes Back. (movie choice uncertain, so Batman is chosen as a temporary choice)

They Edited the 1974 CBS Special Movie Presentation Bumper and the 1978 CBS Saturday Night Movies Bumper
Together--a special variant.

Well, before the Warner Bros. Logo could finish, it was interrupted
by the sudden broadcasting Of The EAS (Emergency Alert System)* which was NOW on
90% of the TV channels in Ogden and Suburbs.

Bob Newbie was watching the action on TWC, which was on Channel 15.

Bella Goth watched the action on WRAT-22, an ABC Affiliate Which Broadcasts on
UHF Channel 22 when she too watched the EAS.

The EAS Was now Activated Because Of This Storm

...And It Showed Up At 1:--pm.

Now, each city had their own special way or sequence to broadcast the EAS in their city...

In Ogden: First the program is cut by the station's still card with the SAME header/ EAS
common starting tone sounding (in real life, it is scary test noise, not the older sine wave combo)

Followed by the animation for the EAS and the EAS sine wave combo of 853 and 960hz, then the message.
Sometimes, additional info--weather safety will follow after the message. At the end, the EAS common ending tone (which too is scary)
Ogden didn't use a announcer for their EAS messages.

In Beverly: They didn't use the animation that Ogden used and it was a bit scary---the screen flashed 5 colors: red, blue, yellow, white and green. They also didn't use an announcer.

In Gary: They used an announcer and the animation was different,
etc.
They Issued The EAS Just As The Storm Had Reached the outer edge of the-- county and

By 1:--pm, the storm was about 7 mins from Ogden and the mayor--Benedict Lincoln calls up the police
chief--Sam Armstrong (who also has his own forum (Sim Safety)) on his limo phone while driving home after a lunch at McDonald's:

Benedict, over limo phone: "Sam?...it's Benedict. The Sim National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for this county and the storm will be here within 5 mins.

"All television and radio stations within Ogden are still broadcasting about this deadly storm. You are ordered to turn on all our Warning Sirens RIGHT NOW!

"If you fail to turn on the sirens....after this storm passes, I will drag you to court, I will have you
fined half a billion dollars for failure to obey the mayor and...I will also have you fired, banned from your forum for 2 years and you will also serve 2 years in prison.

"Does that convince you?!"

Sam: "Yes, sir."

Benedict: "Good!, Now hop to it."

So Sam did the right thing, turning on the sirens before the tornado
entered Ogden, saving alot of lives in the city and avoided having his account banned from his forum and going to jail
by the mayor.

Sam dashed to the computer, which was running a green-texted DOS and controlled the sirens in the city (each siren could be turned on/off by the computer at the police headquarters, by hand at the siren's control box and by radio remote)

And this is what the black screen showed: (the font was System)

SIREN SYSTEM CHECK: ALL SIRENS READY FOR ACTIVATION
SELECT SIREN(S): ALL
MODE: ATTACK MODE
DURATION: NON-STOP UNLESS CANCEL BUTTON IS PRESSED
SIRENS READY: SIRENS ARE READY, INSERT SIREN DISC
PROCESSING....PLEASE WAIT WHILE SIRENS ACTIVATE (Thunderbolt winds up)
Thunderbolt 1000T/all other sirens: (sounding)

The whole process took 45 seconds and everybody heard the sirens (it was nice out, but getting slightly gray)
and took cover (as you should when one hears the wail of a tornado siren)

By now...the storm was within Ogden, the sky was forest green...
winds gusted to 75mph, lightning filled the sky almost every 10-30 seconds
and thunder was also happening too.

Next came the massive rain and hail, flodding in some cases and

The Sim National Weather Service Super Advanced Doppler Radar had Just
Indicated A Possible Tornado On the Outskirts of Gary.

The tornado was confirmed and Gary was in the path and luckily, they had sirens.
The tornado knocked out power in the city before the storm moved on to Ogden.

The Ogden warning sirens....still sounding.
and The Sim National Weather Service Super Advanced Doppler Radar had
Just Indicated A Possible Tornado On the Outskirts of Ogden.

Trained Weather Spotters Confirmed the radar's possible Tornado Touchdown
and it was far from the city--it was on the outskirts and was at first....
an EF-2 tornado and moving a bit fast.

The Mayor Was Driving Home And QUICKLY Got Into The Basement.
The Closest Siren Was The Whelen WPS-4000 Series Siren, Which
Was in Station Park behind the Police HQ- Where The Sirens are Controlled.

He Thought: " Good'OL Sam...Keeping The Sirens On "

Then The Storm Was IN Ogden... (FULLY ENTERED)
NOW at it's peak and the EF-2 tornado grew and got bigger....

and soon it was the worst/highest on the Enhanced Fujita Scale--EF-5!!

The Warning Sirens Were Ripped Apart and Flown Across the City.

The Tornado hit Ogden and it proved to be The Worst Storm That It Saw...Well So Far.

Thanks To The Radar At The Sim National Weather Service - The Super Advanced Doppler Radar In New York City (Manhattan) And The Doppler Radar In Ogden, The Sim National Weather Service In New York City (Manhattan) and The Trained Weather Spotters, A Early Warning Was Given. The Early Warning And EAS Helped People Get To Safety Before This Deadly Storm Hit.

And It Lasted The Whole Day.

LATER ON....

Benedict, With Help From The Sim Red Cross, SFCC, Local Authorities In The Area
And The Mayor Of New York City (Manhattan) (John Fortlick), etc
Summed Up The Damage and......

It was a solid EF-5 tornado.

Population before storm:
Population after storm:
Cost to rebuild:

The End.

 

--------------------------------
Info:

* EAS (Emergency Alert System, Used In Real Life Today Replaced
EBS - Emergency Broadcast System around 1995)

In My Version, It Was Created By The SFCC (Sim Federal Communications Commission)

In Real Life, It Was Created By The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and NOAA

The Sim National Weather Service is the same as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, NOAA, NOAA National Weather Service and their branches/subdivisions in real life but rolled into one building.

Features the sound of a real Thunderbolt 1000T siren. And in Beverly, Shady Grove and Lawton...the sound of the Chrysler Air Raid Siren--edited to go beyond 2 1/2 mins of sounding time.

Incl are some pictures and how the main tornado would look in real life.

Enjoy.
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Bonus:

Ogden's TV/Radio Line Up:

VHF
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UHF
WOTS-19 CBS
WTNK-20 NBC
WRAT-22 ABC
WBTV-23 FOX (Beverly)
WTOK-25 PBS (Gary)

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AM

 

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FM

 

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TV-FM

 

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(Movie takes place on the East Side of Ogden. Tornado leaves the tile but returns and features a glitch---it becomes  invisible)

original movie


original part 1


new part 1

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[Hawkeye9 0]

hmmm interesting start!!! I like how you put together that movie it was nice!!! Cool start and i will be lookin out for more!!!

[zgrillo2004 23]

heres some critiques. the tornado moves too fast. for that large city it would go at least 30 mph

[PattyO 0]

Ok - here are some good comments, and some "criticisms"

First, I really love the premise. This sort of thing appeals to me and I really wish that they (meaning Maxis) had made more weather, as well as randomly-generating weather, available with SC4.

You have an interesting storyline developing, I really hope you edit it to fill in some of the holes (the times listed, for instance).

As zgrillo2004 said, you need to slow down your tornado... typically speaking tornadoes are attached to the clouds above them, and the clouds are usually slower moving (at most about 45mph) and usually move in one main direction (not to say that there can't be some minor variance). Often times with storms and storm systems there is a definite front which will form a line where most of the major storms will develop.

Ogden (if you mean Ogden Utah, at least) is in a strange part of the country compared to the US Midwest ("Tornado Alley" the northern plains, etc). It's typically much drier. Being the fact that Ogden is in a valley near a large lake doesn't help to try to figure out what a storm would do if it struck the area. Recall a couple years ago a tornado struck in Salt Lake City - a rare occurrence but proof that tornadoes can start anywhere.

Now as for timing, typically storms will start in mid afternoon - after 2:00 pm... this is when the sun has just passed overhead (or at it's highest daily angle) and when the heat will be increasing the most at once. If the air around the area is unstable (high humidity / dew point, a cold front in the area) then storms are very possible - if Ogden is in a dry climate, I don't know how that would affect this type of weather, but I am sure that it isn't as likely for a tornado to develop in mid morning or noon as it is in the evening; there's just not enough heat yet.

As for your video, besides the twister moving too quickly and erratically, you need to work on developing those holes in your downtown. If you are making this city purely for the sake of this story, then I suggest using filler buildings / eye candy so it's more impressive when a tornado comes and destroys everything. If this is meant to be an actually functioning city, then you need more development. From what I can tell, you have no highways or even avenues in your game; that's very unrealistic especially when you're trying to have a large central downtown area. All in all, you should work to make the city appear real.

One final thing - in your video you show an image of Doppler radar. It needs to be refined a lot. For lots of storm cells (dubbed Super cells, often), the tornado will be on the tailing end of the thunderstorm. So when a storm enters an area, first the sky will darken and it may rain, hail will form, lightning, wind, etc, but just as that weather begins to dissipate, at the end of the storm is typically any tornado you may see (due to downward rotation of the cloud). There are a number of real signs to look out for on radar images, such as hook echoes (difficult to describe unless you know what I'm talking about.). Hook echoes are considered a very strong indicator of rotation in a storm. You can try looking up RL radar images if you need some guidance, I'm sure there are plenty of radar images of tornadoes floating around.

Otherwise I hope to see this expanded!

[jacqulina 162]

good start my friend

[mayorron 0]

This is a good start. You must've spent a lot of time putting all the description together and the movie. Well the movie could've been better but it was good enough. You should've disabled the zoning and those buttons. But over all, I guess I'd follow this. That was some teaser. Good start.

[reedalson 0]

I downloaded off the STEX stuff by nofunk, Simgoober, etc. and gave Ogden, Lawton, Shady Grove and Beverly an urban renewal. Next, Gary and NYC and possibly some new cities.

[88fordwayne 19]

Very good start. Could have done a little more work with the WeatherStar emulator but you did just fine. Very nice thunderstorm simulation!

[reedalson 0]

The Story of how Beverly got a warning siren, a mini-event from the Ogden Tornado Outbreak

by Alson Reed/Reedalson

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Many years ago, in Beverly...

They didn't have a warning siren in the whole city.

They hardly got any severe thunderstorms, let alone a tornado.

Then one day...

On July 21st, 1993 a powerful severe thunderstorm with supercells and a mesocyclone

was heading for Beverly.

They had no sirens and their only warning was an officer in training.

They didn't believe him at first...

but when they saw the funnel, they were shocked.

Unfortunantly, the EBS operater at WBTV-23, a FOX affiliate fell asleep and forgot to send out the EBS.

The tornado was an F-3 and the city was leveled, 17 died because of the tired EBS operater and the lack of sirens.

The aftermath overwhelmed the region and efforts were underway...

It caused a new law to be issued: all cities, no matter they were major cities, satillite cities or suburbs of both needed sirens and cities around the region got sirens.

After the storm, the mayor wanted the loudest and best siren that was produced.

Some cities didn't have sirens and bordered Beverly.

He called up the local siren rep and together, they browsed through over 10 siren pamplets and one caught his eye... a blue Chrysler Air Raid Siren. The newest model was now being produced.

at a price of $5,000 and customized at $15,000.

The mayor wanted to see how it sounds, so he went to one of the cities that had one

and he was impressed.

That was the siren he wanted and he paid $20,000 for it.

Next he decided a place for it--where it would be safe and heard fully...

on top of the bank building, the Bank of America Building aka 255 W Broadway.

They wanted the best coverage radius and the bank building was perfect.

First they had to be sure that it could hold 7,000 pounds on the roof,

then they had to check the power supply.

It checks out and construction began on the siren

and 5 months later, it was finished.

The rooftop was redone and a 5 foot slab of level concrete was added to the rooftop, with steps to the siren.

The bank building was 722 feet tall, but the extra 5 feet made it 727 feet tall.

The siren was placed on the slab and 4 people were given permission to use the siren.

1--the siren operator

2--the helper

3--the chief of police

4--the mayor

The siren's modes are:

test--Every 2 weeks, unless something occurs...it goes into one of the modes.

attack--Reserved for tornadoes only and

alert--Reserved for severe weather (non-tornadoes) and disasters

steady hi-lo--Reserved for fire calls

wailing hi-lo--Reserved for fire calls

Each have a pull cord.

The test was usually 1 min to 2 mins in length

The other modes, 2 mins to 3 hours (max time depended on disaster)

The siren was tested at noon and the bordering cities heard it as far as 2 or more miles,

It remained in service even after the Ogden tornado, which was many years after.

The mayor chose a great siren and heard all the way to Ogden.

The other cities started depending on Beverly for warnings.

They had chose a great siren, the neighboring cities heard the siren fully--in Ogden,

you hear it ...but faintly

When the siren goes off, all the suburbs bordering Beverly hear it and take cover

And it remained in use for many years.

For more info, see victorysiren.com

Bank of America (255 W Broadway), 1978 722 ft and 40 stories

-----------------------------------------

Here's the ad for WBEAR-AM 1680 that airs every 5 minutes on KEC-99 (the local SNWS Weather Radio station). it's based on an ad for my town's own radio station on my local NOAA Weather Radio station (KEC-63):

Woman: This is WBEAR 1680. The City of Beverly's emergency advisory radio station, broadcasting at 1680 kilohertz AM. The City of Beverly is prepared to nofity it's citzens when an emergency situation exists. Reprensenitives of our local government and industry have the ability to alert and advise you on actions you need to take to remain safe in an emergency. In an emergency, City of Beverly officials will broadcast over cable television channel 17 with specific instructions for you and your family. The City of Beverly has newly obtained its own radio station, AM 1680. In an emergency, public officials will broadcast specific instructions concering there's an emergency on this station. Suggestion: Have a battery-operated radio on hand in case of a power outage and program AM 1680 on your car radio.. The City of Beverly subscribes to the FirstCall Alert System. When the community needs to be advised of a situation, the system is activated and citizens within the impacted area will receive a telephone call within minutes notifying them of the event and what precautions are recommended. Once the situation has resolved, residents will receive an all clear message. If you have an unlisted telephone number or you like to use your cell phone to recive these notices, contact the Mayor's Office at 555-4450. The Bank of America Community Alert Siren is activated to alert citizens of an emergency affecting the community. When you hear the siren, you will receive more specific information from either the FirstCall Phone Alert System or by tuning to radio station AM 1680 or cable channel 17.

Coming soon.....

Video of the siren being used in Beverly and the Ogden tornado...restored and renewed.

[jacqulina 162]

great story my friend

[reedalson 0]

The story is based on a tornado outbreak in Ogden, a city I made in SC4D.

I will try to make it more realistic.

[mayorron 0]

Wow great story. Well, are you just winging it? Or you actually plan the whole plot? Haha but it's all good. Looking forward for more city shots.

[LE0 5]

I love this CJ, i cant wait to see more

[JakeMD 107]

Would be cool to start seeing some pictures! Nice story so far.

[PhatHead 247]

Very cool videos love the weather channel one. great story keep up what you got here.

[reedalson 0]

Soon, I will remake the video.

[LE0 5]

well i cant wait to see the new video!

[MTA3479 0]

Any pics? This is awesome, though!