2) "But the hundreds, or even thousands of non-professional storm chasers are probably not contributing to the science of tornadoes and tornado safety." Nine were confirmed dead in the Oklahoma City area on Friday evening, though the death toll has since risen, and flash floods in Arkansas caused additional fatalities, including a sheriff trying to rescue people from rising waters. At the same time, many helpful comments have been added to the post. Then we have police in the mix attempting somehow to cite the stupid? The Death of Tim Samaras, Lightning Chaser. Twistex Memorial dedicated to 3 killed in El Reno | KOKH I know this from my own children being in Norman public schools. Missouri and Illinois around St. Louis were also hit by 12 tornadoes, at least 100 people are injured and 'numerous homes' have been damaged. and help keep the future of the Observer, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our, Dallas Observer's The Morning After Brunch, The Last Ride of Legendary Storm Chaser Tim Samaras. I decided to let the comments speak for themselves, because, after all, this post was written three or four days after the event, and the comments reflect more recently available information and analysis. On May 13, 2012 Norman PD blocked off roads and literally put me in the path of the tornado. If you want to walk down Main Street, in downtown America, you can do that, because it is America. Samaras was killed along with his son Paul and storm chaser Carl Young in Friday's tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma. Probably not. 'The car was probably about 60 to 70 per cent of its normal size because it had been pushed and mauled and compacted as it was tumbling down the road. I hold a degree in atmospheric and oceanic sciences. How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? Published: 23:27 GMT, 3 June 2013 | Updated: 08:30 GMT, 4 June 2013. This is not about them, it is about their death, which at the time it happened, was claimed to have been caused by a traffic jam caused, in turn, by thrill seekers jamming the roads, and thrill seekers jamming the roads is a thing that happens. Samaras was killed along with his son Paul and storm chaser Carl Young in Friday's tornado. BTW, here is Bart's Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTornadoChaser. Let me post a reply to many of the above comments and suggestions. For example, it used to be hard to catch motorists running red lights in NYC. Inside was Tim Samaras, one of the country's most respected tornado scientists, who had built his career by placing sophisticated probes in the paths of oncoming tornadoes. 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. In a separate incident, Brandon Sullivan and Brett Wright captured heart stopping footage of their exploits getting too close to the powerful twister near Union City, in southwest Oklahoma City. Scientists just confirmed a 30-foot void first detected inside the monument years ago. According to meteorologists about six to eight inches of rain fell in a 12 hour period between 7 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. Saturday. So in a free country, it is possible to do as you suggest. Do not rely on others, including the T.V. I'm not saying I agree with it, but this is not something he suddenly started doing. Actually there were other comments that could even make an above ground room safer. This advice sounds reasonable, but it really isnt. Following their passion: Storm chasers Tim Samaras (right), his son Paul Samaras (left) and Carl Young (second left) were killed on Friday by a tornado. Friday night's storm formed out on the prairie west of Oklahoma City, giving residents plenty of advance notice. And, I've argued that telling people that the safest thing to do is to get in their car and drive is wrong. What if we could clean them out? Though the tornado alert expired, the powerful rain continued to hit the area and floodwaters were collecting in the streets. 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. Chaser traffic, maybe. Storm chasers with cameras in their car transmitted video showing a number of funnels dropping from the supercell thunderstorm as it passed south of El Reno and toward downtown Oklahoma City. Samaras attended Lasley Elementary and O'Connell Junior High in Lakewood. Okay, fair enough. Not to mention what small town or rural county has the manpower to do so when budgets are stretched so thin? Too many words! That's two more vehicles going into the danger zone. Enforcement is difficult, but not impossible. The amateur storm chaser who was killed mentioned, in the cell phone conversation he was having with a friend (who was in a safe location and urged the storm chaser to get out of there), two local TV news vans passing him. In St. Charles County, at least 71 homes were heavily damaged and 100 had slight to moderate damage, county spokeswoman Colene McEntee said. Today three brave, highly experienced, storm chasers were honored in El Reno. Officials added five victims on Monday to the confirmed list of dead from the tornadoes and from storms that caused severe flooding: three adults and two unidentified children, the medical examiner's office said. Also, read the wikipedia on Tim Samaras for more details, and watch this YouTube video (embedded below as well). pauline taylor seeley cause of death; how does this poem differ from traditional sonnets interflora; airmessage vs blue bubbles; southside legend strain effects; abd insurance and financial services; valenzuela city ordinance violation fines; my summer car cheatbox; vfs global japan visa nepal contact number; beaver owl fox dolphin personality . I can at least understand why news crews were in the vicinity, but they didn't really need to be there either. Would one less car have been on that particular road had your proposed law been in place? The chaser can be quite the problem but yet quite the provider of care in a situation where the emergency scene can span a few hundred yards to over a hundred miles. Even if the people who are at risk of vehicular projectiles are innocent bystanders, chances are they're at more risk from the tornado than the cars in them. I don't think anyone's rights need to be taken away Too many people clogging the roads in a chase situation makes it difficult for anyone to get away when a storm turns on them. Other professional meteorologists, from The Weather Channel, were injured. If you are directly hit by a strong tornado, ending up in the vortex, and you are in the bathtub of your home on the lower floor, youve got a pretty good chance of survival. 'Our hearts also go out to the Carl Young family as well as they are feeling the same feelings we are today. 564K views 9 years ago June 3, 2013Tim Samaras spent more than 30 years researching tornadoes. Can we bring a species back from the brink?, Video Story, Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. North Atlantic hurricanes sometimes do unexpected things as well, such as acquire a forward speed of nearly 100 km/h (the 1938 "Long Island Express" hurricane) or cross Florida twice (I'm forgetting which of the hurricanes in the last ten years did this). I doubt that the new law would save lives. Carl Young, a California native, joined Samaras in the field in 2003. 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. They all unfortunately passed away but doing what they loved.'. The rain was coming down horizontally in front of my car. 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. The men worked as a team and Tim Samaras had received 18 grants from the National Geographic Society for work in the field. That's really all I have to say on that issue. There's no wiggle room. As the author admits early on, tornadoes change course and skip. This is nothing new, and this really has nothing to do with someone on television telling them to do so. Long-time friend of Tim Samaras, meteorologist Mike Nelson, told the Denver Channel: 'I have known Tim for over 20 years, he was the most brilliant and most careful severe weather researcher of them all. Flash floods: Two pickup trucks are pictured stuck in high water along NW 23rd Street in El Reno. 'I'm wondering if the tornadoes from a couple of weeks ago didn't frighten people so badly that this time they were taking no chances and trying to evade it by car,' said Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett. Pay special attention to what the weather forecaster says starting at 4:35: if you can drive south, anywhere around Whitewater Bay, State Fair Park, the Ballpark, downtown Oklahoma City, southwest Integres, US Grant District, Rose State college, Midwest City regional medical center, Midwest City, and Parts of Del city, you need to drive south now. (approximate transcript). Greg is definitely right about the distinction between researchers who need to be close to the storm to do their research (people like Samaras) and people who are doing it just for fun. The tragic circumstances that caused the deaths of Tim and Paul Samaras and Carl Young has been well documented. As of this writing, the death toll stands at 13 with another 6 (though Ive also heard 7) people still missing. A two-and-a-half mile wide tornado would not look like a tornado to a lot of people, Smith 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. Belongings: A woman finds personal photos for a neighbor from the remains of her home destroyed by violent thunderstorms across the Midwest, Ruins: People walk near cars and trees damaged by a tornado at the Canadian Valley Technology Center in El Reno, Oklahoma on Saturday morning. They sheltered at St Anthony's Hospital which was only about 1/4 mile from where the tornado touched down. I doubt it. In fact, it isn't just the mathematical curiosity known as the Mandelbrot set that's full of irregularities and ever, How three storm chasers died, and what to do about it, http://news.yahoo.com/tornado-coming-grab-helmet-084500057.html, http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTornadoChaser, http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/06/19/pilger_nebraska_torn, The Lab Leak Theory Was Dismissed As Trump Xenophobia - Now Deniers Say It Was Not Accepted Because of Trump Xenophobia, DAN5/P1: Homo Erectus Early Cranial Capacity Was More Like Australopiths Such As 'Lucy', DART Made A Big Difference In Ability To Accurately Calculate Asteroid Deflections, The Subsidies Paradox: Affordable Food Versus The Environment, Degrowth communism as asolution for climate change, On that chilling law suit against the environmental groups, Watch Jeff Merkley Wipe Floor With Trump's William Wehrum, "Transparency" should not equal a license to harass scientists. Oklahomans can handle a day or two of this, but after a week plus of watching families with lost loved ones on the news they start getting jumpy. -Benoit Mandelbrot I do regard some of the complaints I've gotten, especially some of the really nasty ones I've gotten by email, to be excuse making. It was a shock this morning to learn from an editor at National Geographic that Tim Samaras had been killed by a tornado in Oklahoma. I am stunned that that any forecaster indicated people should drive anywhere after 5pm that day. 'I'm not sure why people do that sort of stuff, but it is very dangerous. He gave direction to leave if in the path. The deaths of Mr. Samaras, his son, and Mr. Young had absolutely nothing to do with the horrendous traffic affecting other parts of Oklahoma on May 31. The . Plan for a lifetime, like I did. 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. As for highway patrol and local police their cars NEED to have radar installed and they need lessons on how to use it. The Storm Prediction Center said scientific storm chasing is performed as safely as possible, with trained researchers using appropriate technology. If you want to make this about Tim Samaras, how about you contact his family, colleagues, or friends and ask them what he would have wanted. Tim shared data and results. Terrible things they are! And again. Why not outlaw sky diving too? A mans world? The rain was coming down horizontally in front of my car.'. Or, amateurs could get to a good viewing area well ahead of anticipated severe weather, and then stay put and off the road. NBC News reported that the passengers were herded to the basement and told to put their hands on their heads as they waited out the storm. I refer you'all to this: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/06/19/pilger_nebraska_torn, I think the only thing storm chasers should do is be apart of the new pioneering field of tornado disbursement, its a idea I had years back in the field of weather modification using scaled up drone quad copters to deliver large quantities of helium gas to new forming tornadoes. It airs at 10 p.m. EDT Wednesday. It gets logistically harder to do this if the affected area includes Cairns or Brisbane, because if you are evacuating people from low-lying areas you have to leave the roads open long enough for them to get out. The officers had to contend with hail and strong winds as they worked to help motorists. to get jammed up. I have heard that some professional storm chasers offer package tours. He said "you need to be below ground [pause] if you can drive south bla bla bla", Does this mean "you need to be below ground, but if you are in you car in the path of the tornado you can drive south", Or does this mean "you need to be below ground or if you can drive south, go and drive south". That is a real problem and has increased over time. In many cases, a law is unenforceable at face value, but when something goes wrong it suddenly becomes part of the equation. I was in Warr Acres, just next to Bethany in OKC on Fri. May 31. Debris was tangled in the median's crossover barriers, including huge pieces of sheet metal, tree limbs, metal pipes, a giant oil drum and a stretch of chain-link fence. Contributions are fully tax-deductible. Tim's death is a stark reminder of the risks encountered regularly by the men and women who work for us. So when an alert is issued the authorities only have a few roads to close, and not much population to evacuate. During the United States tornado season, it seems that we experience repeated tornadoes and other severe storms in a given area over several days. Please be respectful of copyright. 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. I'm reminded of Grand Island, NE in 1980, when the tornadoes defied everything we supposedly know about them. The last people out will be stuck in traffic. Where victims found after monster May 31 tornado - KFOR.com It is known to be BAD advice and they directly contributed to the deaths that occurred. The roughly 5,000-year-old human remains were found in graves from the Yamnaya culture, and the discovery may partially explain their rapid expansion throughout Europe. Here is what the tornado did: It grew from a big tornado to a bigger tornado, to what might be the largest tornado ever observed with instruments, in a matter of seconds, and it made a fast jog to the right, not an unusual thing for a tornado to do, but unanticipated by the storm chasers. Tim Samaras, 55, along with his son, Paul Samaras, 24, and Carl Young, 45, died on Friday in El Reno after a tornado that packed winds of up to 165 mph picked up their car and threw it,. Dallas' independent source of After seeing last month's tornado also turn homes into piles of splintered rubble, Ms Black said she decided to try and outrun the tornado when she learned her southwest Oklahoma City home was in harm's way. Oklahoma wasn't the only state hit by violent weather Friday night. Our community has suffered a terrible loss and our thoughts and prayers are with their loved ones. There are too many chasers/gawkers on the road these days.get use to it and prepare for it. You are absolutely right, that this tornado was a particularly monstrous one. The interstate was shut down due to the storm, with multiple crashes and injuries. The season usually starts in March and then ramps up for the next couple of months. Samaras, a tornado scientist for over 25 years, founded and ran a scientific field research program dubbed TWISTEX (Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in Tornadoes EXperiment). So, the driving away several hours in advance isnt really smart, because you dont know that far in advance where away might be. Your freedom ends at my nose if your presence endangers me. His pioneering work included the development of probes which when left in the path of a tornado, can measure pressure drops. understanding tornadoes will prevent this from happening. But the main circulation was crawling with smaller tornadoes, some moving at speeds of 260 feet per second (177 mph), according to the report. Reed Timmer and Sean Casey and their crews modified vehicles that successfully survived being in powerful tornados (for Mythbusters fans, you may have seen these two teams vehicles go head to head with a jet engine to see how they would survive tornado strength winds on the episode Storm Chasing Myths). Because of the circumstances on the two-lane road, it appears that he could not get out of the way, and, basically, the tornado picked up his vehicle, Jim Samaras told the Today show. At the end of the day, he wanted to save lives and he gave the ultimate sacrifice for that," Jim Samaras said. Tornadoes do neither. So, regarding the question of traffic: first, I know. The Samaras' and Young were pursuing an EF3 tornado as it bore down on a metropolitan area of more than 1 million people. Take multiple pictures of vehicles "in the way" of emergency responders at tornado or other emergency sites. The National Weather Service said the severe weather threat would shift into neighboring Illinois and Missouri, where Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency on Friday. Those media outlets need to do a more professional job and take their responsibility as journalists rather than entertainers more seriously (generally, not just with respect to tornadoes). Were 20 of those people storm chasers? People who tried to get away in their cars faced potential dangers from flash flood waters as well as tornado-force winds. I'm not saying these circumstances are sensible or humane, but they are the case nonetheless. OKLAHOMA CITY The deadly tornado that struck near Oklahoma City late last week killing 18, including three storm chasers, had a record-breaking width of 2.6 miles and was the second top-of-the-scale EF5 twister to hit the area in less than two weeks, the National Weather Service reported Tuesday. In this country, if a cyclone alert is issued, all roads are closed. Storm Chaser Tim Samaras: One Year After His Death, His - Adventure You can also shop using Amazon Smile and though you pay nothing more we get a tiny something. But, since we (we here discussing this) don't really know the laws and how they work regarding emergency response, traffic, etc. You have to sensor the state. 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. The complexity of the kind of law your advocating is also extremely hard to defend in court. (Football, Lacross, Motorcycle, Bicycle etc). I think that Tim Samaras knew what he was doing. "He looked at tornadoes not for the spotlight of TV but for the scientific aspect. But seriously, I'll be talking about the story of the current, In every area of life, but especially in the overlapping realms of technology, science, and health, misunderstanding how things work can be widespread, and that misunderstanding can lead to problems. It truly is sad that we lost my great brother Tim and his great son, Paul. But I'll just say that I think there are less extreme solutions than putting a ban on all amateur storm chasing. This included CNN. Was El Reno a giant tornado populated with powerful subvortices? And if people are close enough to a tornado so that a car gets thrown at them, then that might just be natural selection as well. #2. the storm went from a mile wide wedge to a 2.6 mile record breaking monster in an extremely rapid time, usually people 1 mile away from the storm would be safe or even 2 miles away but in this case it dropped on people 2 miles away, more so i don't believe it was a traffic jam as opposed to the rapid size increase and the sudden change in course. That wasnt the only broadcaster telling people to evacuate instead of hunker down. 'It was chaos Everybody was running for their lives,' Terri Black, who lives in Moore, said. Humans enjoy challenges that involve risk and admire those who "cheat death". I'll never do it again.'. Certainly broadcast public service announcements discussing the danger of chasing storms. But that brings in another issue doesn't it? It is fairly safe to say, that Mr. Samaras, his son, and Mr. Carl Young, sustained injuries when the sub-vortex of the El Reno storm directly impacted their vehicle on Reuters Road, west of the intersection with Radio Road. More than half of those were people who had been cut or pierced. I have suggested that such a thing should be worth, at least, a parking ticket. If you want to walk down Main Street, in downtown America, you can do that, because it is America. I assume those are passed to make legislators feel good about their jobs. He turned and saw at me peering up from the basement steps! '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. 10th St. and Radio Rd. At the time that Samaras, his son, and his colleague, were crushed to death inside their tornado-chasing car, which was apparently rolled by the force of 200-300 mile an hour winds over a. How close is too close? 'Everyone acted differently in this storm, and as a result, it created an extremely dangerous situation,' said Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett. One of Earth's loneliest volcanoes holds an extraordinary secret. 'Tim was a courageous and brilliant scientist who fearlessly pursued tornadoes and lightning in the field in an effort to better understand these phenomena. For example, most storm chasers are individuals or small teams, and they benefit with direct contacts with actual tornadoes, and often fund their work this way as they sell their video to news outlets. There is a large university team with a NASA/NOAA grant that I know of, and a number of professional chasers are grad students at a university, but that is not the same thing. The newscaster's advice was appalling. which storm chaser killed himself - Stmatthewsbc.org After the devastation of the Moore tornado, many residents who had experiences the storms before decided to ignore advice to stay home and tried to seek shelter elsewhere. Birth Name: Tim Samaras Occupation: Meteorologist Place Of Birth: Colorado Date Of Birth: November 12, 1957 Date Of Death: May 31, 2013 Cause Of Death: N/A Ethnicity: Unknown Nationality: American Tim Samaras was born on the 12th of November, 1957. Local news reported an estimated 1,200 people were at the airport. Timothy Michael Samaras Famous Death - Khoolood Obviously it's hindsight now that Tim and his crew were not caught up in any traffic jam and in fact the opposite. The sudden acceleration to NE caught several folks by surprise. In some but not all cases, this advice was qualified; If you know several hours in advance that there is a high probability that a tornado will come through your area, then it is a good idea to just go away and be somewhere else. A total of five tornadoes struck the Oklahoma City metro area, the National Weather Service said. Very few professional storm chasers "work for the government" really, none. A small tornado in Kansas, photographed during Tim Samaras's lightning expedition in August 2009. I would say to such folks the same thing a fire chief would say to people who are not trained, qualified, or equipped to study burning office buildings but feel that somehow being close to one would help them provide insights about fire safety: "Move along, you're not helping but just getting in the way here. So, I think this particular weather caster did come up short in his responsibilities to provide good safety information but I'm not sure that his comments in and of themselves constituted explicit instructions to leave one's house, get in a car, and drive. We are part of Science 2.0,a science education nonprofit operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. On the other hand, it means they are intentionally bringing civilians into the danger zone, and these civilians don't always know how to react if the situation gets out of hand.
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