'Some tornadoes are wrapped in rain, so it's basically impossible to see, which is extremely dangerous,' said Bruce Thoren, a meteorologist with National Weather Service in Norman. But I'll just say that I think there are less extreme solutions than putting a ban on all amateur storm chasing. Nooooooooooo!!! The people could be driving for many unattributed reasons. Before the horrific events of May 31, 2013, when the huge El Reno tornado took the lives of scientist Tim Samaras and his crew, a twister had never killed any chasers although several had died. Joel Taylor starred . Thanks for contacting us. This advice sounds reasonable, but it really isnt. Hard to know what to do. 'What we saw from the tornadoes that came through Moore and the other ones last week was that people who were in cars on the Interstate were killed,' Fallin told CNN. October 1, 2013 This spring's tornado season got a late start, with unusually cool weather keeping funnel clouds at bay until mid-May. There's no wiggle room. I recently found the article on the el Reno tornado you wrote several years ago and I was struck by the naivety of your arguments on laws banning chasing. That's really all I have to say on that issue. In his twenties, he began to chase tornadoes for the science and humanity's safety every spring all over the United States until his tragic death. Specious arguments at best. The scale is based on observable destruction, and little was damaged as it tracked through the remote, relatively featureless farm country. Oklahoma City has a similar population level to Cairns and Brisbane. The Oklahoma City metro district has about 1.3 million people. Their deaths may not seem surprising; storm chasing, as you might expect, has its risks. I've had grown adults that have lived in Oklahoma their entire lives ask me what the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning is. We need sensors in place, in advance of the storms. Lucky escape: A meteorologist from The Weather Channel was injured after his car (seen here) was thrown 200 yards by the storm, Waterway: A man uses a jetski to travel between his home and Osage City, after Missouri was affected by severe flooding, Storm damage: Navy veterans inspect the washed out road where they pulled a woman and her daughter to safety after their car flooded, A family in El Reno, Oklahoma inspect what is left of their home after Friday night's tornadoes battered the local area, Rain: Parts of Oklahoma City experience extreme flooding after multiple tornadoes passed through Central Oklahoma, For more videos, please go to the Long Center Austin. 'The trees were leaning literally to the ground. I havent seen any good arguments yet that storm chasers and others on the road during a tornado are posing a danger to anyone but themselves. One minute you're sitting there watching TV, the next minute your whole neighborhood looks like it was jammed through a meat grinder. Why are you so quick to blame the TV and not the idiots living in the heart of tornado alley who chose to get in a car when they knew there were already tornadoes in the area? Academic Postmortem of Tornado that Killed Tim Samaras Is Chilling Brantley Hargrove October 1, 2013 1:50PM The American Meteorological Society has released a preliminary version of its. His pioneering work has made it easier to warn people about tornadoes. Tim Samaras, his son Paul and colleague Carl Young died Friday night when an EF3 tornado with winds up to 165 mph turned on them near El Reno, Okla. After years of sharing dramatic videos with television viewers and weather researchers, they died chasing a storm that killed 13 in Oklahoma City and its suburbs. Now they've got cameras that take a picture showing the red light, showing your car going through the red light, and showing the license plate on your car going through the red light. If it was two more miles this way, it would have wiped out all of downtown, almost every one of our subdivisions and almost all of our businesses, White said. The men spent years capturing and sharing storm videos with TV viewers and weather researchers. If you live there, there should be no excuseyour life depends on your knowledge. Using the unfortunate but unrelated deaths of well known storm chasers to rail against people trying to seek safety from a storm by getting out of the way strips any slight merit or credibility from your already weak and less than well thought out argument. Samaras submitted this footage to National Geographic in the weeks leading up to his death,. Big blue trash cans were being tossed around like a piece of paper in the wind. This is a free country, or at least we want it to be a free country, and being able to freely travel on public thoroughfares is part of that. Discovery says it has been updated with 'Stormchasers' footage of the researchers. We have many many laws that are more or less unenforceable. Numerous vehicles were damaged in the storm and that many motorists were left stranded. Storm chasing by amateurs needs to be outlawed. 'That's a very unwise thing to do because it's the absolute worst place you can be during a tornado.'. Let's create MORE laws to regulate something we really do not know if it is a problem. It is unfortunate that when such behavior becomes a problem society sometimes needs to make a rule of some kind. Since this post went live Jeff posted about another storm chaser, an amateur, who was killed in this tornado. Samaras acknowledged the dangerous weather conditions Friday in his final tweet before his death: Individuals and institutions across the fields of storm-chasing, meteorology, and media expressed their sorrow and condolences to the victims' families Sunday. Though the tornadoes were not as strong as the EF-5 twister that killed 24 on May 20, fear drove many people to attempt to flee the area in their cars only to get caught up in heavy rains and flash flooding. 'They had no place to go, and that's always a bad thing. Discovery Channel said it will honor the three veteran storm chasers, who regularly appeared on its show Stormchasers, with a special airing this week. And if public safety is truly the issue at hand here then instead of telling people to get in their cars and trying to figure out some sane and responsible way to evacuate from the path of a tornado mandate better public and privet shelters in areas more prone to this kind of weather. Early aerial images of the storm's damage showed groups of homes with porches ripped away, roofs torn off and piles of splintered wood scattered across the ground for blocks. After 20 seconds, it rotates back around to the south side of the tornado. Your analogy regarding the burning building is wrong as well. It made all the difference that it was out in the country.'. It's your life so guard it like you own it. He deployed one of these in the path of an F4 tornado that destroyed the small town of Manchester, S.D., on June 24, 2003. I have heard that some professional storm chasers offer package tours. National Geographic storm chaser Tim Samaras gave an interview on the day of his deathspeaking to National Geographic radio host Boyd Matson from the road on May 31 about his attempts to study . ", In reply to by Danny Caputi (not verified). When she emerged from the freezer her car windshield had been shattered by the hail. Second, the point is still valid. The weather service determined that the storm packed winds reaching 295 mph. 'There was just no place to go. I've literally sat bumper to bumper with chasers on a five mile strech of road. I could not agree more with the statement in this article saying that driving away is not the best option. Was El Reno a giant tornado populated with powerful subvortices? "He was a groundbreaker in terms of the kind of research he was doing on severe thunderstorms and tornadoes," Dr. Forbes said on The Weather Channel Sunday morning. There are some similarities to people doing volcano research, in that people doing it know they have a high risk of death if they happen to be on duty when the eruption occurs. For example, a highly irresponsible storm chaser endangers an innocent bystander, then that danger comes to fruition. Also my brother was forced to move to Oklahoma for a job just last week only days after the tornado in this article struck Oklahoma city. The tornado caught up with him and his crew and ended them. It's just news. 'We're going to die, we're going to die': Storm chaser's last words as Oklahoma schools are not properly educated on how to shelter children.

Storm chaser Tim Samaras died Friday doing the work that made him so well-known: following tornadoes. :) All this about tornadoes is very reminiscent of fires in Australia. A two-and-a-half mile wide tornado would not look like a tornado to a lot of people, Smith said. Furthermore only a tiny handful of "trained" spotters have ever been killed either and the only two I know of was back in 2011 on a single tornado. The other, which according to professional storm chasers is a problem, is the increased number of people crowding roads (including but by no means limited to) highways in or near the paths of storms. We were fine. In fact, the general wisdom is that if you are unlucky enough to be in a car when a tornado hits, you should pull over, get OUT of the car, and find a low place to hide. One of Earth's loneliest volcanoes holds an extraordinary secret. But the main circulation was crawling with smaller tornadoes, some moving at speeds of 260 feet per second (177 mph), according to the report. Large, long-lasting thunderstorms known as supercells are responsible for producing the strongest tornadoes, along with large hail and other dangerous winds. The bodies of another motorist and the Discovery Channel storm chasers, Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and Carl Young, were found in a three-mile diagonal path near N.W. Why wetlands are so critical for life on Earth, Rest in compost? Television images showed downed power lines and tossed cars as the storm systems dumped at least three inches of rain, stranding motorists in flood water. But telling everyone to leave their homes and drive is not advised, if that is actually what the newscaster did. Do not rely on others, including the T.V. 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Yes, Houston is a bigger city than OKC, and one of the freeway routes out of town takes you to Galveston, which is exactly the wrong way to go. Sher told ABC News: 'When the troopers found them, they were both deceased.'. This was one of the highways that really did have a traffic jam thanks to the TV people who encouraged locals to attempt to flee in their cars. Alliteratively, if you are in a car and hit by the vortex of an F3 or stronger tornado, your chances of survival are much lower. I dont think the scientists who died in this storm would agree with you on that. Hail and heavy rain pelted the metro area to the point that emergency workers had trouble responding to 'widespread' reports of injuries. Become a member to support the independent voice of Dallas Several parents in the group I was with decided to drive south, away from the storm. state by state the possibility that some kind of adjustment must remain open. Also we MUST push for adqueate shelters. Take multiple pictures of vehicles "in the way" of emergency responders at tornado or other emergency sites. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Alex Murdaugh unanimously found GUILTY of murder of wife and son, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Isabel Oakeshott clashes with Nick Robinson over Hancock texts, Do not sell or share my personal information. 'Our hearts also go out to the Carl Young family as well as they are feeling the same feelings we are today. Pete, Born: I think this is a difficult question. Tim Samaras, a native of Lakewood, Colo., holds the Guinness World Record for the greatest pressure drop ever measured inside a tornado. Not according to biology or history. Were looking at extremes in the rare EF5 category. Plan for a lifetime, like I did. They eventually revised this policy I'm assuming based on what has happened to folks in their stores during a bad storm. Terry Garcia, executive vice president of the National Geographic Society, said: 'We were shocked and deeply saddened by the news that longtime National Geographic grantee Tim Samaras was killed in a tornado in Oklahoma on Friday, along with Tim's son Paul and their colleague Carl Young. He also starred in the Discovery Channel series Storm Chasers. I have lived in the Oklahoma City area for 37 years and have been professionally chasing storms for the last 18 years. >>> I support this 100%. Storm chasers should absolutely pull off the road and yield to emergency vehicles as well as people trying to escape. Your argument that talking about a way to address a situation in which people lose their lives is inappropriate because the situation is an emotional tragedy is actually the misguided reaction. This storm was erratic and there will be more storms just like it in the future. Damage: An Oklahoma home destroyed, its roof partially torn off after the tornado rips through, Salvaging: Residents retrieve belongings from a home destroyed by the tornados that tore through central Oklahoma. More than half of those were people who had been cut or pierced. The comments below have not been moderated. Look at that video. I can at least understand why news crews were in the vicinity, but they didn't really need to be there either. A man's body was found about 1 p.m. on Saturday in a creek just east of Dobbs Road in Harrah, said Mark Myers, a spokesman with the Oklahoma County Sheriff's office. The Storm Prediction Center said scientific storm chasing is performed as safely as possible, with trained researchers using appropriate technology. Rather, they are jamming roads in the very places where a traffic jam can be deadly if a tornado happens to pass over the gaggle of cars stuck in place. The news comes as the death toll from Friday's tornadoes and storms in Oklahoma has risen to 18 people, including six children and 12 adults, the Oklahoma chief medical examiner said on Monday. I would like to see some repercussions for the idiotic weather personalities who suggested running away. When does spring start? Storm Chaser Tim Samaras Dies; His Last Tornado Footage . 'They were screaming, "We're going to die, we're going to die,"' she recalled to USA Today. 'My car was actually lifted off the road and then set back down,' Ms Black said. Tim Samaras, 55, was found dead still belted into the mangled wreck, while the bodies of his son, 24, and Young, 45, were flung a quarter-mile away in opposite directions. It almost stopped, then went East. The boy and other family members had sought shelter in a drainage ditch. For those suggesting regulation on storm chasing. The tragic circumstances that caused the deaths of Tim and Paul Samaras and Carl Young has been well documented. . All rights reserved. That is not my argument either, it is simply what all the experts say. Laws are really challenging to enforce. Renowned researcher and storm chaser Tim Samaras, 55, his son Paul Samaras, 24, and his chase partner Carl Young, 45, passed away after they were overtaken by the multiple-vortex tornado,. People who are paying for the storm chasing experience are expecting to do pretty much the same thing. The rain was coming down horizontally in front of my car. Quick Answer: Tim Samaras How Did He Die - BikeHike There was just no place to go. But it is a free country, and if people want to be foolish then so be it. Was the chaser causing harm? Caught in the midst of the gigantic storm was a group of storm chasers who had nowhere to hide. But please, do we need new laws? Yes, they died, but there is ZERO evidence this law, if passed, would have prevented even one of them. They didn't happen to be overrun by a killer tornado at the time. It is emotional to posit "people died, let's make a law" without really identifying a true cause. And now Public safety officials have the right and responsibility to restrict access to Main Street and areas nearby in order to save lives and property. All rights reserved. But once your car is inside an F3 or F4 tornado, that is no longer your problem alone. The Life and Death of Legendary Storm Chaser Tim Samaras - D Magazine The shredded pieces of the car hook to the south then across the road to the northeast: I have difficulty fathoming the violence implied in that paragraph. https://twitter.com/SenJeffMerkley/status/, While perusing the New York Times over the weekend, I was disturbed to see an article by Paul D. Thacker that basically advocated using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request e-mails from scientists in search of undisclosed industry ties. The Friday storm, however, brought with it much more severe flooding. All rights reserved. 82.6K subscribers Tim Samaras gained notoriety as one of the top stormchasers in the country, and a star of Discovery's Stormchasers, who helped us further understand the science of tornadoes. Probably many thing contributed to what happened. Tim Samaras Cause of death Tornado incident Known for Tornado field research Spouse(s) Kathy Samaras. Even if we could predict hours in advance that the storms would hit a particular county (and as you correctly point out, this is not true--there may be several distinct tornadoes in a single outbreak, so it's quite possible that Oklahoma City and Enid could both be hit the same day), this would not help in a major metro area like Oklahoma City. But if the Acme Office Building, on Main Street, is on fire, broken glass is blowing out of windows and fire trucks and other emergency vehicles are trying to gain access to the building and nearby fire hydrants you cant walk down Main Street you are not really free to walk or drive up and down Main Street to take pictures of the event. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Bart, the fact that the tornado was extreme is certainly the biggest factor, but I did not overlook the fact that this event (these storm chasers getting killed as well as three others luckily surviving a badly rolled over car). If you must call out Mike Morgan, then you must also call out Marc Dillard and Reed Timmer from KFOR for also suggesting people drive south. Which, I think, was one of Greg's original points. It's a valuable industrial & research gas. So in a free country, it is possible to do as you suggest. These things will always be unpredicable and its good to hid under the basement steps! Either prospect is equally remarkable. Samaras was killed along with his son Paul and storm chaser Carl Young in Friday's tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma. Contributions are fully tax-deductible. The article was entitled, disturbingly, Scientists, Give Up Your Emails. How three storm chasers died, and what to do about it Yes, chaser convergance has been a huge problem over the last few years. One might argue that if someone wants to drive their car into the path of a tornado they should be allowed to do so because it is a free country. Storm chasing is definitely in the "Don't try this at home, kids!" The one thing in your article I see that you failed to address is the number of chasers in the past that have been killed by the storm while chasing them. Sun rise: Tornado debris hangs from a destroyed billboard sign along Interstate-40 Westbound after violent thunderstorms spawned tornadoes that menaced Oklahoma City and its already hard-hit suburb of Moore on Friday, Air chaos: At Will Rogers World Airport, 2,000 people spent the night sheltering in underground tunnels, Overturned: Authorities say people ignored advice to sit tight and attempted to leave the area - perhaps as a reaction to the previous tornado almost two weeks ago, Lightning: A storm chaser in Cushing stopped to take photos of the dramatic moment two lightning strikes hit the ground, Tragic: Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers found the bodies of a woman and an infant near their vehicle. If you want to walk down Main Street, in downtown America, you can do that, because it is America. Any house would have been completely swept clean on the foundation. Samaras' car was perhaps too slow and too light, and the road was not amenable to fast driving. Three veteran storm chasers were among the 10 people killed, Dallas Area Storms Cause Power Transformer To Explode. On May 13, 2012 Norman PD blocked off roads and literally put me in the path of the tornado. "He looked at tornadoes not for the spotlight of TV but for the scientific aspect. "We're trying to collect as many observations as possible, both from outside and from the inside. The spot a few yards off Reuter Road where the body of Tim Samaras was found inside the crushed vehicle (his son. Thus the bigger the projectile you will make, the worse the fine. Invoking the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, a federal conspiracy law devised to ensnare mobsters, the suit accuses the organizations, as well as several green campaigners. Local news reported an estimated 1,200 people were at the airport and were herded to the basement to wait out the storm. These skeletons may have the answer, Scientists are making advancements in birth controlfor men, Blood cleaning? Del City has 21,000 people in it. Trooper Randolph said roadways quickly became congested with the convergence of rush-hour traffic and fleeing residents. Eco-friendly burial alternatives, explained. It needs to be taught FREE for the public as well. Storm chaser Tim Samaras died Friday doing the work that made him so well-known: following tornadoes. Dallas' independent source of Mike Bettes, a member of the Weather Channel Tornado Hunt Team, was driving in his SUV when it was picked up and thrown 200 yards by the monster rain-wrapped tornado near El Reno. Obviously it's hindsight now that Tim and his crew were not caught up in any traffic jam and in fact the opposite. Though we sometimes take it for granted, Tim's death is a stark reminder of the risks encountered regularly by the men and women who work for us. They were essentially targets just waiting for a tornado to touch down,' Ms Randolph said. I have a feeling that Scienceblogs will not last long without me. Friday night's victims included a mother and a baby sucked out of their car as the EF3 hit near El Reno. They were probably thinking, somebody should do something about this situation.". Three experienced tornado chasers actual meteorological scientists were killed when their truck (one of the vehicles depicted above, probably) was destroyed by the tornado. A Carrollton High School Claims Employee Gave Student Prescription Drugs, Rep. Nate Schatzline, Under Fire for 'Drag' Video, Accused of 'Doxxing' Keller ISD Mom, Another Carrollton Fentanyl Arrest and an On-Campus Overdose at R.L. At the same time, many helpful comments have been added to the post. How a zoo break-in changed the life of an owl called Flaco, Naked mole rats are fertile until they die, study finds. >>> What they're doing is seeking fame and fortune by selling their videos to various websites and television stations. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous. They went in the field focused on collecting data to enable meteorologists to further the science behind tornadoes which we know has and will help to save countless lives. In the future I will be blogging at Greg Laden's blog, located at its original home at gregladen.com. What this weather forecaster just did was to advice a couple/few tens of thousands of people in the path of a tornado to get in their cars and drive in the same direction. Skip Talbot makes this point. Not to mention what small town or rural county has the manpower to do so when budgets are stretched so thin? Television cameras showed debris falling from the sky west of Oklahoma City and power transformers being knocked out by high winds across a wider area. So, the driving away several hours in advance isnt really smart, because you dont know that far in advance where away might be. More than 100 people were injured by swirling debris, most with puncture wounds and lacerations, authorities said. "Though we sometimes take it for granted, Tim's death is a stark reminder of the risks encountered regularly by the men and women who work for us.". Like diving into the bath tub with a mattress on top for cover. But, I suspect I know why you proposed that idea. There is no certainty. Police have a hard enough time now dealing with emergencies, the last thing they have time to do is stop to write tickets. I don't know all that much about chasing so I recognize that there could be some logistical problems with my above statements. Tim Samaras Dead: Oklahoma Tornado Kills Storm Chaser, Son Paul Samaras