Meteorologist Freaks Out Live On Air During Earthquake In Oklahoma (Video)

A 4.2 earthquake that struck near Oklahoma City Monday morning may make a local television meteorologist a YouTube hit after she had a bit of a mini-freak out in the middle of the minor quake.

Meteorologist Danielle Dozier of Oklahoma City ABC affiliate KOCO-TV Channel 5 was in the middle of giving viewers a peak into the 10-day forecast (side note…who seriously gives a 10-day forecast? How accurate can you be 10 days out?) when viewers could see just a little bit of shaking of the studio camera. It’s at this point that Dozier has her moment that will live in YouTube infamy, thanks in large part to her station posting the video to its YouTube channel.

“Whoa! Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry. This is live on air. That was way bigger than what we just felt earlier. That was well over 4.0 magnitude, I can tell you that much right now. Let me finish this forecast and then … forgive me. It actually scared me. That’s how powerful that one was.”

A voice off camera can be heard saying, “That was huge.”

NewsOK reports a total of three earthquakes shook the Oklahoma City area Monday, with the magnitudes coming in at 3.0, 3.5 and 4.2, though the website — the online home of The Oklahoman — reports the Oklahoma Geological Survey as measuring the largest of the quakes at 4.5 magnitude.

Oklahoma has experienced a string of earthquakes in recent years, with some serious damage as a result (serious damage by Oklahoma standards, but maybe not according to West Coasters used to much larger tremors). The largest of these was a 5.6 magnitude quake to strike east of Oklahoma City in the town of Prague in November 2011, destroying 14 homes and damaging many others. Two injuries were reported, according to The Inquisitr.

Since that time, Oklahoma has experienced hundreds of earthquakes, with some blaming fracking for the quakes, which generally have been shallow. Monday’s quake was centered only 3.1 miles below the surface. Live Science reported that Oklahoma’s large number of quakes, which has even outpaced California’s rate of earthquakes, resulted in a rare earthquake warning earlier this year.

“Geologists don’t know when or where the state’s next big earthquake will strike, nor will they put a number on the increased risk. ‘We haven’t seen this before in Oklahoma, so we had some concerns about putting a specific number on the chances of it,’ Robert Williams, a research geophysicist with the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program in Golden, Colorado, told Live Science. ‘But we know from other cases around the world that if you have an increasing number of small earthquakes, the chances of a larger one will go up.'”

Dozier and KOCO did not report any damage from Monday’s quake, which was centered near the intersection of Northeast 122nd Street and North Midwest Boulevard in the town of Jones, Oklahoma.

[Image via screen grab/YouTube]