A series of earthquakes at 5:31, 5:47 and 6:25 a.m. hit the Oklahoma City area this morning.
The largest hit at 5:47 a.m. and was 4.2 on the Richter scale. Reactions among the local stations were pretty consistent, an initial reaction followed by a guess of the earthquake’s magnitude.
“Whoa! Oh my Gosh! I’m so sorry,” said KOCO meteorologist Danielle Dozier during the 5:47 a.m. shaker. “This is live on air.” Dozier then waited for the rumbling to stop before saying, “That was way bigger than what we felt earlier.” Dozier rightly predicted that earthquake was over 4.0.
FOX affiliate KOKH had the most restrained reaction. Chief meteorologist Jeff George was at the tail end of his forecast when the quake hit and said nothing. Anchor Leslie Draffin told viewers the station just felt what she called a huge earthquake and promised to give more info before tossing to break.
CBS affiliate KWTV was coming back from a video and tossing to meteorologist Lacey Swope who yelled “Earthquake!” when it hit. Stan Miller and Tammy Payne talked about anchors making it on YouTube with their earthquake reactions and suggested Swope take a deep breath after she ducked down and told viewers her heart was racing.
KFOR, the NBC affiliate was showing forecast maps when the temblor hit. “Oh snap!” said meteorologist Emily Sutton. “That’s a big one.” Sutton also commented that the clanking of the lights was the thing she noticed most. Sutton and anchor Kent Ogle high fived after revealing they had both correctly guessed a previous earthquakes magnitude.