Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
STERLING, VA — (WMAL) The meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Sterling are used to camping out in their office during major storms, so they were prepared with sleeping bags and food as the blizzard hit.
What they didn’t plan for was being snowed in for the first time in recent memory.
With roads covered, Jim Lee, meteorologist in charge, called the Loudoun County Office of Emergency Management to see if the Virginia National Guard could help bring meteorologists to work to relieve their colleagues who had been there for at least 12 hours.
“They brought us in a Humvee and dropped us at the gate, and we have a Polaris, kind of like a snowcat, that went from our office to the gate, which is about a half mile away because our road was even impassable,” Lee said.
He said the mission was a success, and tired meteorologists were taken home and relieved by their colleagues.
Despite being stuck, Meteorologist Bryan Jackson said they were fine. “Certainly a lot of adrenaline, and I don’t know if there’s been that much food eaten here. That kind of feeds you when you’re going,” Jackson said before the rescue.
Lee said they’re trained for these situations, and everyone’s doing well.
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