And that traffic jam was probably caused by the exodus of people following very bad advice, and possibly as well as non-professional storm chasers moving in on the likely path of the storm. Rather, his team would predict the path and drop machines on the ground designed to directly measure variables such as temperature, humidity, wind and so on, but with the team and their vehicles getting out of the way before the tornado comes. I do find it sad that that few if any of your statements regarding how the Twistex team was killed was accurate. Was the chaser causing harm? 'If you live in downtown Oklahoma City, please go below ground. I think this tornado did some stuff we didn't expect. In other words, it is now probably legal and appropriate for police or fire departments to close off roads or direct traffic or tell people not to drive in a particular area where there is currently a major fire, explosion, storm devastation, and so on. Further with this ridiculous drive away strategy and the inability to predict small movements how do you parse the storm chasers from the poorly directed refugees? Do not rely on others, including the T.V. Its a free country - youre obviously free to drive when and where you want, and I certainly dont want that to change, but something has to be done to avoid another tragedy like the one that killed 9 motorists Friday evening, including 3 professional tornado researchers Tim Samaras, his son, and intercept partner. The three storm chasers Tim Samaras, his photographer son Paul Samaras, and meteorologist Carl Young were killed when the twister they were pursuing made a sudden left turn and slammed into their car, sending it flying through the air like a toy. What's eerie is that the subvortex becomes stationary on the road, like it chose to stop right on top of them. Some of my colleagues stayed, where there is a basement. independent local journalism in Dallas. His video consisted of really high quality camera work of weather and the focus wasn't on him. 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. 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. 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. Winds swept one vehicle with a crew from The Weather Channel off the road, tossed it 200 yards and flipped it into a field -- they escaped major injury. They can easily cite or arrest anyone they need to, and even temporarily imprison them, without charging them with anything. Join the Observer community and help support Vented to the atmosphere, it eventually makes its way to the exosphere and is light enough to escape to space. After a large and violent tornado went through Moore Oklahoma a few days ago, several people in various media outlets including CNN mentioned that given the (seemingly enigmatic) lack of good shelter in homes and public buildings in Oklahoma, that a good option to protect yourself in case a tornado comes your way is to drive away. He designed, built, and deployed instrument probes to measure atmospheric variables such as pressure and wind in the path of tornadoes. Take your time.'. Samaras' Chevy Cobalt was traveling east down a dirt road with the tornado to his south. Unless you wish to legislate God, I recommend you rethink your proposal. Samaras was killed along with his son Paul and storm chaser Carl Young in Friday's tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma.

An engineer by training, Samaras was known for devising instruments that offered the first views inside live tornadoes. In Fridays storm, many of the deaths were caused by heavy flash flooding following the storms. I won't be joining them on the roads. Now that would be an effective law. Paul is right. More than 210,000 customers lost electricity in the areas affected by the storm. 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. I don't think the scientists who died in this storm would agree with you on that. Also, there are nearly no public shelters anymore, due to liability issues. When the NWS uses phrases such as "You will not survive, neighborhoods will be flattened" no one in their right mind is going to stay at home and wait out the tornado in their bathroom or closet above ground. Dan Robinson had a clear view of their white Chevy Cobalt in his rear facing dash cam as they pulled up to and crossed Hwy 81 until their headlights fade behind the outer wall of the suction vortex that killed them. In fact, while writing this post I wondered what the three scientists were thinking as their car, and other cars, were hemmed in with a traffic jam that seems to have been caused by inappropriate reactions by a large number of people. local news and culture, Brantley Hargrove I answered in good faith. It is probably true that Samaras abandoned attempts at dropping probes more often then strictly necessary, cautiously avoiding rain-wrapped tornadoes where they would not have been able to see where the tornado was, in order to be extra safe. If you're prepared to fight fire and defend your property you have to be there before fire starts and stay there for as long as it takes. Obviously it's hindsight now that Tim and his crew were not caught up in any traffic jam and in fact the opposite. Sean, I agree on all points. The complexity of the kind of law your advocating is also extremely hard to defend in court. Photograph by Carsten Peter, National Geographic. I have not suggested that storm chasing be illegal. "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.". There is no certainty. He set a world record in 2003 which still stands today when he recorded an 100 millibar pressure drop from an F-4 tornado. 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. Even with interstate highways out of town in six different directions, you wouldn't be able to evacuate all those people in a few hours. With the severe weather knocking out power to nearly 120,000 customers in Oklahoma, according to electricity provider OG&E. Let's create MORE laws to regulate something we really do not know if it is a problem. Later analysis of the situation indicates that there was indeed a traffic jam enhanced risk for several storm chasers, caused by the ill advised comments from local media (as described below) but that this happened after Samaras and his crew were killed, in a different location, and that this happened to not cause any deaths. (MORE: Tornado Hunt Team Takes Direct Hit by Tornado). 'It's not even close to anything like what we had last week,' Smith said. Writing new laws on the books is useless, even before the news agencies started this new trend which is disturbing you have people hiding under overpasses and pulling stupid stuff, Chasers have complained about this issue for years, notice numerous videos of truck drivers who even drive into the funnel, enforcement will be non existent because this puts law enforcement in a position of risk and is irresponsible, i agree with the tours, but again many people cannot afford the tours that are out there now and so they figure its cheaper to go it themselves, we can blame people for the groups death but the fact is that there were several unusual factors that caused this. 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. At 6:23 p.m. on May 31, 2013, Samaras, his 24-year-old son Paul (a photographer), and TWISTEX team member Carl Young (a meteorologist), 45, were killed by a violent wedge tornado [19] with winds of 295 mph (475 km/h) near the Regional Airport of El Reno, Oklahoma. 564K views 9 years ago June 3, 2013Tim Samaras spent more than 30 years researching tornadoes. I'll never do it again.'. 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. Humans enjoy challenges that involve risk and admire those who "cheat death". Oklahoma wasn't the only state hit by violent weather Friday night. Please make a tax-deductible donation if you value independent science communication, collaboration, participation, and open access. ScienceBlogs is a registered trademark of Science 2.0, a science media nonprofit operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Amy Williamson, who lives just off I-40 in the western Oklahoma City suburb of Yukon, said when she heard the tornado was heading towards her home, she put her children, baby sitter and cats in her car and drove away. The storm path could have gone many other directions. I agree that telling people that the safest thing to do is to get in their car and drive is wrong. And we're wasting it on stupid, silly things like party balloons. Having been in law enforcement some years ago I don't think you understand how unenforceable those laws would be. The sudden acceleration to NE caught several folks by surprise. The new year once started in Marchhere's why, Jimmy Carter on the greatest challenges of the 21st century, This ancient Greek warship ruled the Mediterranean, How cosmic rays helped find a tunnel in Egypt's Great Pyramid, Who first rode horses? Countless hikers have fallen to their deaths from cliffs. Here is all you want to know, and more! 'Mile Wide Tornado' originally aired Sunday and focuses on the May 20 tornado that devastated a wide swatch of Oklahoma. If you are worried about the roads being clogged during a tornado then don't drive or don't live in tornado alley. If you were turned away from Main Street due to a fire, and instead took Elm, would the state be responsible when a fire spontaneously breaks out on Elm as well and sprays glass on you? 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. All rights reserved. The men spent years capturing and sharing storm videos with TV viewers and weather researchers. In Missouri three people died in three counties after rivers rose to dangerous levels, and in Arkansas a sheriff was killed by flooding in Scott County on Friday. The . Watch: You're an excellent writer. Why is it these days that every time someone dies someone wants to make a new law restricting freedom? Would one less car have been on that particular road had your proposed law been in place? They should not drive where they will not be able to pull over safely to allow emergency traffic and other traffic to flow. It's your life so guard it like you own it. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman predicted a slight chance of severe weather in the Northeast on Sunday, mainly from the Washington, D.C., area to northern Maine. The Weather Channel issued the following statement: It was with great sadness that The Weather Channel learned of the passing of Tim and Paul Samaras and Carl Young as a result of the El Reno Tornado. 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. Hopefully, that lesson will be learned immediately. This one didn't. I will not comment at all in regardess to the death of Tim, Carl, or Paul, as they were close personal friends of mine and I am not reading to speak on that subject currently. Tim Samaras, a native of Lakewood, Colo., holds the Guinness World Record for the greatest pressure drop ever measured inside a tornado. So in a free country, it is possible to do as you suggest. The worry soon turned to flash flooding and floodwaters topped four feet in Oklahoma City on Saturday morning. In 2012, storm chaser Andy Gabrielson died while driving home from a chase when a wrong-way driver struck his vehicle on Interstate 44 in Sapulpa, Okla. However, people are not immortal and sometimes die doing the very thing live for, you simply can't legislate that human desire for adventure out of existence, nor should you try to. The tornado then hurled the light Chevy Cobalt to the ground, leaving it looking as though it had been rammed through a trash compactor, police said. Sometimes accidents happen. Samaras was born November 12, 1957 in Lakewood, Colorado, to Paul T. and Margaret L. Samaras. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous. Biography - A Short Wiki Were all the people blocking the road amateur chasers? He did not say "don't get in your car" and he did not say "a car is a bad place to be, and if you find yourself in a car do this and that" which is what he should have said. This storm changed track. When the storm passed between El Reno and Yukon, it barreled right down Interstate 40 for more than two miles, ripping billboards down to twisted metal frames. Also we MUST push for adqueate shelters. Then, when the car is done flipping, it gets flipped again. I also heard mention of a storm chaser who, attempting a U-turn to avoid a flooded stretch of road, went off a hidden embankment and was lucky to avoid drowning. 'We're never going to know, because they're not here to tell us,' Mr West told The Post. According to Mr West, their vehicle looked ' like it had gone through a trash compactor' when it was found. This advice sounds reasonable, but it really isnt. The people who drove away did find shelter after what sounded like a very fearful drive. The tornado caught up with him and his crew and ended them. I assume those are passed to make legislators feel good about their jobs. In the future I will be blogging at Greg Laden's blog, located at its original home at gregladen.com. Certainly broadcast public service announcements discussing the danger of chasing storms. Tornadoes do neither. Damage from Friday night's severe weather was concentrated a few miles north of Moore, the Oklahoma City suburb pounded by an EF5 tornado on May 20 that killed 24 people. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved. In theory the helium gas should combine with the natural vortex suction and make the conditions for the tornado formation less favorable it may also be possible to deliver the helium through other methods or maybe have the helium frozen in water droplets A.K.A frozen helium crystals, and dropped from air tankers. I think one suggestion if such a law could ever be enforced to weed out the average thrill seeker is maybe require one, a first aid type certification. Here is a compilation of broadcasts and events documenting this: I have no idea how many of the people in the viewing area of this station saw or heard this report and responded by driving into the path of the tornado. The seasoned storm chaser had dedicated his life to extreme weather, following storms for a quarter of a century. 'We're scrambling around,' said Lara O'Leary, a spokeswoman for the local ambulance agency. But volcanoes usually give fair warning that an eruption is likely to occur in the next several weeks, and in most cases (at least in First World countries) authorities can control the few access routes to the volcano. Getting into a ditch can apparently also be fatal. That's what they're made for,' long-time storm chaser, David Hoadley, of Falls Church, told The Washington Post. We've received your submission. Injuries that were INCOMPATIBLE WITH LIFE. Look at that video. tornado disbursement tactical teams should be flown in by helicopter and then flown out after the job is done, its much safer this way. Washington, DC: National Geographic. Until proven otherwise, I will assume that the special category of people known as Professional Storm Chasers like Tim Samaras and his crew as well as Reed Timmer, and others, are risking their own lives to make observations and collect data that help us understand tornadoes better, to make better predictions about storm behavior, and thus to make better predictions about unfolding storms. But yes, I agree that people deliberately in the wrong place at the wrong time should be penalized. The majority of schools are built from concrete blocks that are not reinforced. It may well be that entirely different approaches are better. I would like to see some repercussions for the idiotic weather personalities who suggested running away. None of those fancy schemes work. Lighting up the sky: The storm chasers work was featured on National Geographic and the Discovery Channel as they tracked violent weather systems, 'Tim's research included creation of a special probe he would place in the path of a twister to measure data from inside the tornado; his pioneering work on lightning was featured in the August 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine. 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. What was that point that I missed? Flash floods: Two pickup trucks are pictured stuck in high water along NW 23rd Street in El Reno. Paul (1925-2005) was a photographer and model . You can read the preliminary version here. A finite resource. @Hamish: One reason that can work in Australia is because most of the region that is vulnerable to tropical cyclones (a hurricane is a tropical cyclone with sustained winds of at least 64 kts/74 mph/118 km/h) is sparsely populated. from a major non profit, click through the the X Blog to read the press release. "This is a very sad day for the meteorological community and the families of our friends lost. meteorologist. Large, long-lasting thunderstorms known as supercells are responsible for producing the strongest tornadoes, along with large hail and other dangerous winds. They were caught off guard not by traffic, but by an extremely powerful and erratic multi vortex tornado that grew from a mile wide multivortex into a 2.5 miles in diameter behemoth as it also accelerated and turned north toward the ill fated chasers. It is also true that the relatively cautious drop and run strategy meant that they missed getting their equipment in the direct path of a tornado more often than not. 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. Old cells hang around as we age, doing damage to the body. For the record, an "enigmatic" lack of shelter in Oklahoma has to do with cost. With the regulation that you are proposing, what would you suggest to someone who doesn't have the tools or money to contribute their chasing to science, but simply would like to witness the beauty of mother nature, and is educated enough on storms to make smart decisions to not pose a danger to others? 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. If idiots who don't know what they're doing want to drive into a twister, let them. He almost certainly didn't know that the rain-shrouded vortex was hooking toward him, to the northeast, and that he had entered its circulation. 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. And two, the chaser would have to carry a business license on his person to prove he had a need to be there for whatever his business reason might be. Scientists just confirmed a 30-foot void first detected inside the monument years ago. The update from the National Weather Service means the Oklahoma City area has seen two of the extremely rare EF5 tornadoes in only 11 days. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it believed the deaths were the first time scientific researchers were killed while chasing tornadoes. This is my last post at Scienceblogs.com. They need to better forecast for a chaser convergence and prepare to block roads. 528 people were killed by weather in 2012, of which about 200 were a result of high velocity air. [sic] I look at it that he is in the 'big tornado in the sky'. 10th St. and Radio Rd. Let me post a reply to many of the above comments and suggestions. 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. I think it's an abomination that news forecasters suggested people drive away that temporally close to a suspected tornado touchdown. Doppler imaging pegged the tornado's width at 2.5 miles, the widest ever documented. Chasing Tornado's. 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, somersaulting, a half a mile. 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. Absolutely educate people on the safest way to ride out a storm. Samaras, his son Paul, and colleague Carl Young died in late May in El Reno, Okla. while chasing an EF5 (winds above 200 miles per hour) tornado, which was later estimated to the be the widest . 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. Also, their data helps us to better understand the dynamics of what happens in tornadoes which can help make safer structures. Shelters up the price of homes, making homes much less affordable for many people. They didn't happen to be overrun by a killer tornado at the time. From the Texas border to near Joplin, Mo., residents were told to keep an eye to the sky and an ear out for sirens. I'm not saying these circumstances are sensible or humane, but they are the case nonetheless. It wasn't what I would consider a traffic jam under normal circumstances, but when you have a tornado coming straight at you those seconds are important. :) Meteorologists had warned about particularly nasty weather Friday but said the storm's fury didn't match that of the tornado that struck Moore. For example, a highly irresponsible storm chaser endangers an innocent bystander, then that danger comes to fruition. 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. When does spring start? He was found hanging in his Wichita, Kansas home. In Missouri, areas west of St. Louis received significant damage from an EF3 tornado Friday night that packed estimated winds of 150 mph. Its very scary I dont think a normal person can fathom just how scary. I'll take my chances sheltering in place, thank you. Good day to you sir. Oklahoma County sheriff's office has identified the victim as James Talbert, according to NewsOk. Big fires are also pretty unpredictable and they can drop burning embers many kilometres away from the fire centre. The spot a few yards off Reuter Road where the body of Tim Samaras was found inside the crushed vehicle (his son. 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,. Say you are sitting in your home and you know there is a tornado coming and you are watching TV and the following breathless reporting is happening. 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. Enforcement is difficult, but not impossible. People were going southbound in the northbound lanes. That area might include three or four of the several states that make up Tornado Alley. However, within that area, the exact location of a killer tornado isnt predictable at the scale of several hours. For those suggesting regulation on storm chasing. 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. Then he yelled "get your ass back down there, boy!" 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. The reason that is bad advice is very simple. I dont think the scientists who died in this storm would agree with you on that. So, the driving away several hours in advance isnt really smart, because you dont know that far in advance where away might be. As for highway patrol and local police their cars NEED to have radar installed and they need lessons on how to use it. It is not like the Tornadoes have a rule book that if we follow we are safe. Eco-friendly burial alternatives, explained. They eventually revised this policy I'm assuming based on what has happened to folks in their stores during a bad storm. The Storm Prediction Center issued a statementSunday, saying it was terribly saddened by Tim Samaras' death. Making a law which makes it illegal to chase storms will make it practically impossible to get enough data to understand tornadoes. These devices, which he . On Tuesday, Storm Chasers star Joel Taylor died at 38. 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. 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.

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