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More Severe Weather Across Middle US; Tornado Warnings Issued

Aired May 30, 2013 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Chad Myers, I don't know if you heard that conversation, but I suppose certain people need to take cover.

Talk about the voice of calm from someone living smack dab in an area that was hit so hard last week by that EF-5 tornado, and he is just continuing on with his day.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST (via telephone): You know, Brooke, I talked to photographers and producers who don't live in Oklahoma.

They are here because they've been sent here, and their question to me so many times is, how could you put up with that? How could you live with this?

And I ask them, where do you live? I live in L.A. How can you live with earthquakes? How can you live with the San Andreas fault? Well, good point. I guess you have to have something.

And the fact of the matter is these tornadoes are so well forecast now, the warnings are so good, and sometimes tornadoes are not survivable. I understand that. That does happen, where an EF-5 simply cannot -- you can't live through it because there's nothing left of the house, even if you do the best that you can.

But so many tornadoes are not EF-5s. Of that 1,000, only one or two would be as strong as Moore was and. probably in many years, even less than one or two, could be none.

And so it's just a matter of, you know, we have these tornadoes. We know they're here, as long as you're warned and do the right things.

Another thing, I'm watching this rotation. It's still not organized. It's -- I wouldn't even use the word healthy like the other storms did -- the other storm-spotter did, but we know that on the north side of this, on the hail-core side, that hail today could be as big as tennis balls.

So let's just -- let's take the potential out of a tornado because it's only two or three or four blocks wide, but then you get a hail- core that's three or four miles wide, what tennis size hail would do to the roof or to your car.

So when you ask me, what's something you can do, something you can do right now is get all of your vehicles inside your home. Get your pets inside the home. Make sure that all farm animals -- because, you know, sometimes they get a mile away. Try to get them back into the barn, get them into places where they are safe from the hail and not only the tornado, but in case there's hail or, for that matter, wind damage.

BALDWIN: Right. Right.

Chad, stay on the phone with me.

Folks, as we're covering these tornado warnings in Oklahoma, two active warnings. You heard the voice of someone who lives in Moore continuing on with his day.

I was in Moore last week, and you know what they told me, time and time again? They cannot live in fear.

Our correspondent, George Howell, is in Oklahoma City. He was there covering the tornadoes that hit many of those towns last week.

There was a big benefit concert in town last night raising money for the survivors and for those families that have lost lives.

We're going to check in with George after this, breaking news here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right. Welcome back to CNN live coverage here of these severe storms that are forming in Oklahoma. Specifically, we know of two active tornado warnings.

Got a couple of people we're talking to, including Chad Myers, our meteorologist who is on the ground chasing some of these storms.

Samantha Mohr is in our Severe Weather Center as we continue to watch these live pictures of these big, dark clouds in the Oklahoma City area.

I want to go first to Kevin Rolfs, who is a storm chaser just east of Chickasha.

Kevin, what is the visual you have? I understand you're looking at this and it looks unorganized. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

KEVIN ROLFS, BASEHUNTERS CHASING (via telephone): I'm sorry, could you repeat that?

BALDWIN: tell me what you see. Kevin, can you hear me, it's Brooke on CNN. We're live, can you hear me, sir?

ROLFS (via telephone): I can hear you now.

BALDWIN: All right. Let's try it again. Just tell me, I'm going to start simply with what you see right now.

ROLFS (via telephone): What do I see right now? Well, the storm as a whole from the last time we talked hasn't really organized anymore from where it was.

It's just a broad circulation in the mid-levels, and it hasn't really picked up in strength.

BALDWIN: OK. So if the storm is unorganized and this is your area of expertise, not mine, but when I hear unorganized, would that lessen the possibility of tornadic activity?

ROLFS (via telephone): At the moment, yes. The probability of a tornado is, from what I can tell, from my vantage point, pretty low.

It's still -- it still could get more organized here as it continues east/northeastward, but at the time, it's not producing any indications that it's going to tornado soon.

BALDWIN: OK. Kevin, thank you. Don't go too far from your phone. We may be calling you back, depending on what changes in the skies above you.

Samantha Mohr is in our Severe Weather Center. Samantha, tell me what you're seeing on that radar.

SAMANTHA MOHR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We're going to start out with a big picture and show you just how much watches are in place right now, Brooke.

You can see they extend all the way from Wisconsin, stretching down into Illinois, eastern Missouri, in through Arkansas, and then also, of course, into Oklahoma, where our focus has been with these two cells that are currently being warned on here, these two areas with tornado warnings.

Now the one we're most concerned about that's on its way towards Moore or towards Norman, Oklahoma, that currently has a severe thunderstorm warning on it. Does not have a tornado warning on it, does not have a confirmed tornado yet, so it is a severe thunderstorm warning and moving off to the east around 25-miles-per-hour.

It's taking a little bit more of a northerly path, and if it does so, it could move into Moore within the next 30 minutes or so. If it continues a little bit more on an easterly path, it could take it into Norman, Oklahoma, which you mentioned, of course, a lot of people who live in Moore have been staying in Norman since the devastation from that EF-5 last week.

So this is the area we are most concerned about if it continues on that easterly path. It will likely take it into Norman within about the next 30 minutes. So we'll certainly let you know which way it deviates during the next 30, 45 minutes.

Brooke?

BALDWIN: OK. As we watch the path and see what trajectory this storm takes, Chad Myers, who has been on the phone, I understand, is now in front of a camera.

Here you are, Chad. Where are you?

MYERS: I am about five miles east of Chickasha, very close to where your other reporter was from.

Brooke, I'll tell you what. I'm on a five-second delay. You're on a two-second delay. Viewers have to understand we're using brand-new technology here, but the storm is behind me.

This is the part of the storm I wanted to show you, the lowering of the cloud on the southwestern part of the storm. Off to the right, pan off to the right, that's where the hail would be. That's your hail core, all the way over there.

Coming around, what we're seeing here, the rain shaft, no tornado out of the back of the storm just yet, but this is the part that would be the hook, the appendage on the back of the storm itself.

And what else we're doing here, we're with the University of Oklahoma. I'm going to bring you over here slowly. I know this picture does take a little while to get to you. That's OK, how this technology works.

But this is a Doppler radar on wheels. They are literally slicing this storm in very many pieces from the lower levels, all the way up to the upper levels. That's how fast that radar goes around, and we're seeing the radar cut through the storm, looking for the worst of it, sending this data back to the weather service in case there does need to be a tornado warning at any time.

You have to understand sometimes radars are 30, 40, 50 miles away. This radar right now is about six miles away from the rotation of this storm, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Incredible. I'm going to give you a second to put that phone up by your ear so you can hear me. I know we have this delay, but this technology is truly impressive now as we really have improved how we can predict and see how the storms form.

We still don't know, as Sam was pointing out, the path that they will take, but again, explain to us when you're looking at these clouds, Chad.

A wall cloud, what is that again?

MYERS: It is really where the uplift of the storm is the most impressive. It's the rotating part of the super-cell thunderstorm. It's the meso-cyclone itself, a low-pressure center in the backside of the tornado forming storm. Not a tornado yet, but it's the lowering part that the tornado would come out of, and that's the part there.

It looks very unimpressive right now. All I'm seeing is one little, almost cotton ball puffs. That, in fact, is called scud, the rapidly rising air getting up in the storm. The lowering has gone away, a little bit of the intensity of the storm has gone away.

That doesn't mean it's over. That means it's cycling. Nothing attempting to affect this storm.

I can look left. I can look right. There's not another storm for 20 or 30 miles. This storm gets to use all of the moisture, all of the heat. It's very muggy where I'm standing right now. I bet the relative humidity is 97 percent. The temperature in our car says 79. That means dew point around 78, 77 for you weather people out there.

Real muggy air mass, a lot of humidity, a lot of potential for this storm to still continue to develop. This is what we hope for. Let this storm rotate itself out and kill itself. That would be fantastic and then nothing would get on the ground.

I'm just not convinced, Brooke, that's the way of this storm. This has a lot more going for it here simply because there's a lot more time. This is still the early part of the day. To my east, the sun still out. That air is still very warm out there.

Brooke?

BALDWIN: And again, just going back to that voice of calm we heard, the man on the phone with me from Moore, Oklahoma, and, you know, he is going on about his business, heading to the church, helping people clean up.

As we're looking at these clouds, the storm could head more towards Moore, could head more towards Norman. At what point, Chad, do the sirens go off?

MYERS: Well, that, actually, is determined by the emergency manager of the county sometimes. Even in Cobb County, Georgia, where I live, if a tornado watch is posted and a severe thunderstorm warning was issued, the sirens would go off.

Kind of a little misnomer. That has been repaired. There has to be a little bit of a different threshold.

So, yes, as soon as the tornado warning goes off from the national weather service, then that threshold is there and the sirens go off.

We are miles from any city. There may not be a siren for us to hear right here in this area. That's why it's so important to have that NOAA weather radio on.

Now I want you to get a NOAA weather radio that has SAME technology -- S-A-M-E. It means that you can program your county, whether it's Grady County behind me, Caddo County here, Oklahoma County where it might go next, or even Canadian. That's the county you will program in. Maybe even one county to your west just so you have a little extra protection, a little extra time.

But once that warning is issued for you, the radio goes off. You know it's you, and you go to take shelter right away. And even if it's a severe thunderstorm warning like it is at this point in time, there's still hail and there's still wind damage happening right now with this storm somewhere, just not where we're standing because we know where to place ourself to get the best picture, yet not be in the way of any significant problems whatsoever. We are in no danger right here, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Chad Myers, you know about tornadoes better than anyone else at CNN, having worked as you have in Oklahoma City. Thank you so much for your bit of expertise today.

And when we come back, not too terribly far, Chad, as you mentioned, in a very rural area of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, of course, incredibly populated, and actually just about a 30-minute drive of the town of Moore.

We're going to take you to that city, live, next. Breaking news here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. You are watching live breaking news here on CNN.

I am standing here in Boston, Massachusetts, in front of the T.D. Garden because tonight is the big night with the benefit concert for this city after it was absolutely rocked about six weeks ago from the Boston bombings, a lot of big names here.

The story at the moment is actually where the benefit concert was held last night, Oklahoma City. You know what happened in Moore and the surrounding communities last week. Many of the homes absolutely leveled by these tornadoes.

And, once again, we are watching the radar, we are watching live pictures here as there are two active tornado warnings in Oklahoma, and in the city, specifically, we have George Howell.

George Howell, tell me -- just set the scene for me, first.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Brooke, certainly.

So what we see right now, I'm seeing a mix of blue sky and thick, cumulus clouds here. The clouds are clearly moving pretty fast.

That storm that Chad has been talking about is two hours south, could certainly move through Moore.

But right now you can tell that people are paying very close attention to the weather. Just like you mentioned, this area has been hit very hard.

And, remember, Oklahoma has showed us that tornadoes can happen very quickly. Remember, that -- (inaudible) the day before -- hello?

(AUDIO BREAK)

So that's what we're keeping an eye on, to see how this system plays out here, as this continues through this area.

BALDWIN: George, I know you were in Moore. I know you were in Moore for the president when he was there last Sunday. And you continue to report.

When I was there I know a lot of people who lost their homes, not only were they in Norman, Oklahoma, put up in the dorms at O.U., but also in Oklahoma City those who could afford the hotels.

Have you talked to anyone who lives in this part of the country who is concerned or as we heard from the gentleman we talked to living in Moore, not yet?

HOWELL (via telephone): Well, I think there is definitely concern and, if you hear background noise, I think that might be Chad Myers and his crew there on the same line here with me.

But I can tell that people are paying very close attention to the weather. People have their weather apps out, their radar.

(AUDIO BREAK)

Also monitoring this storm with their helicopters. Everyone is paying very close attention, Brooke, because that's just what they do here. This area is used to -- they are accustomed to tornadoes. They know how to move quickly. Everyone responds fast.

Many people have those NOAA weather radios that Chad mentioned a minute ago, so that is what people are doing, watching the storm as it moves through.

But again, right now, (inaudible) a lot of blue sky, and I see big clouds, big storm to our south, another to our north. We're all watching.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're leaving. We're leaving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

BALDWIN: OK. George, you're breaking up, so I'm just going to let you go. That was George Howell, our correspondent in Oklahoma City.

Again, two active tornado warnings, big clouds, but I say this loosely, having talked now to a couple storm chasers and Chad, obviously Chad saying just be careful, take cover if you are in the path of the storm.

And several of the storm chasers saying, in looking at these clouds and saying they're still unorganized which is a good sign.

Hopefully, it will just spin out and kill itself and tornadoes will not be spawned.

Got to get a quick break in. You're watching CNN breaking news. Back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MOHR: Samantha Mohr, coming to you live from the CNN Severe Weather Center, we have tornado watches in effect from Wisconsin all the way down into north Texas right now.

And our focus has been on the cell which is northeast of Chickasha now moving toward Norman and Moore, Oklahoma, to the east at around 20- miles-per-hour at this time.

So we're watching very carefully. It could be moving into Moore or Norman within the next 45 minutes or so.

We will take you live to the ground in Oklahoma City right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I want to make sure you stay with us on CNN as we continue coverage of the breaking news, two active tornado warnings in Oklahoma. Jake Tapper will be all over it at the top of the hour on "The Lead."

As for me, I know we've been talking a lot Oklahoma, but I am here in Boston, and I just want to tell you we're in front of the T.D. Garden where it is a huge night.

This night means a lot, I know, for the city of Boston, for the people who survived the bombings over a month ago.

I mean, when you talk about the artists, I mean, we talked to James Taylor, and we'll post that incredible interview on the Brooke Blog, CNN.com/Brooke, James Taylor, Aerosmith, New Kids on the Block, Jimmy Buffet, Carole King, Boston, several special guests. I know a number of the survivors will be there tonight.

You can watch it all streaming live starting at 7:00 Eastern. Just go to CNN.com and we will have much more coverage tomorrow on the show, of course, at 2:00 Eastern.

For now, Boston, thanks for having me back. Got to go to the show. I'm Brooke Baldwin. "The Lead With Jake Tapper" starts now.