The storm is named on Tuesday. It makes landfall on Saturday. Between those two facts sit four days in which the storm is entirely a product of computation, and during which it is bought and sold, evacuated from, insured against, and reported on hourly.

By Thursday the shelves are empty. By Friday the coast road is closed. These are real effects. They are effects of a simulation that has not yet acquired a referent.

If the storm turns north and dissipates, the four days do not become fictional in retrospect. The bottled water was still bought. The road was still closed. The simulation ran to completion and produced the world; the storm was simply a coincidence that failed to arrive.

Consider how much of your week runs on that schedule.