When the National Weather Service issues a tornado watch in the dead of night, some people aren’t even aware of it. But Sarah Johnston can’t ignore the alert. That’s when she goes to work.
Johnston is the assistant director of The University of Alabama’s Office of Emergency Management. She’s also a professional meteorologist, a combination of skills not commonly found at higher education institutions.
“I think it’s a wonderful skill set to add to emergency management because weather is impacting us daily,” Johnston said. “You’ve got someone local who knows the campus community, who knows the local weather, who knows the different daily schedules and aspects of the University, that can really apply that and better prepare.”
Any time the campus goes under a tornado watch – no matter the hour – Johnston and her OEM colleagues activate the UA Emergency Operations Center. From a fortified room equipped with computer monitors and wall-size display screens, she can monitor weather radar, consult with local meteorologists and work with UA departments responsible for safety and security.
“As staff meteorologist, I’m really just that local connection for our leadership at the University,” Johnston said. “I work closely with the National Weather Service office in Birmingham. They have a very large coverage area, [so] I’m that local translator for what’s going to happen on campus.”
Growing up on the Alabama Gulf coast, Johnston witnessed firsthand the power of weather – hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. But the pivotal moment that pushed her into combining meteorology and emergency management came on April 27, 2011. She survived the EF4 tornado that plowed through Tuscaloosa. The storm flattened neighborhoods and killed more than 50 people in the city.
“Something like that really does change your perspective on the world. I wanted to better understand why it happened and use that in a way to better prepare people,” Johnston said. “So I think from that moment on, I wanted to understand how to apply meteorology in my emergency management work.”
Johnston graduated from UA in 2010. After nearly three years with the American Red Cross, she joined OEM in 2014. She earned her Master of Science in applied meteorology in 2020.
Though on rare occasions Johnston can be jolted out of bed by unexpected alerts, she usually has much more lead time. The large, well-organized severe weather systems that sometimes move across Alabama in the fall and spring months often show up in sophisticated weather prediction models several days before they occur.
When those familiar patterns start to appear, Johnston gets updates from the National Weather Service’s Birmingham office and sends heads-up messages to many UA departments, such as transportation, housing and athletics, as well as members of University leadership.
“There’s a lot of people who have to start making preparations behind the scenes and I like to give them as much notice as I can in those events,” Johnston said. “I’m notifying them every day.”
On sunnier days — the kind Tuscaloosa sees most of the year — Johnston helps train UA employees, carries out emergency exercises and incorporates lessons learned into severe weather plans.
Thunderstorms, tornadoes and winter storms respect no clock or calendar. They can happen on holidays, on weekends, and at dusk or dawn. That doesn’t bother Sarah Johnston.
“I’m wanting to help people, and I want the community to be safe, and I want our campus to be prepared,” she said. “So if that means I stay up a couple more hours, or I wake up at 3 a.m. because there’s a tornado watch, that’s okay, because I know I’m doing what I need to do.”
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More about the University of Alabama Office of Emergency Management can be found online at ready.ua.edu.