The Stunning Tornado Videos of Storm Chaser Tim Samaras, Who Has Died

National Geographic ^ | 6/2/13 | Jeff Hertrick

[jimbo123]

Storm chaser Tim Samaras was killed Friday doing what he loved: chasing tornadoes. He and his son Paul perished in the El Reno, Oklahoma tornado along with frequent partner on storm chasing adventures, photographer Carl Young.

Samaras had a long relationship with National Geographic, providing some of our most memorable videos of storms.

[heartwood]

Take your kid with you, that’s Darwin territory.

[newheart]

His son was 24 years old. I'm pretty sure that is old enough to make up your own mind. He was a photographer and documentary filmmaker working on a story about his dad and storm chasing.

[Jeff Head]

This gy was an exceptional researcher. Here's a video he made a couple of years ago about what he did.

Tim Samaras strom Chaser presentation in 2011

[txnativegop]

Mother Nature will eventually catch up with you, as it did in this case. I think storm chasers do good service for science, but to make it a living invokes the law of diminishing returns — in this instance the diminishing chase of surviving such storms.

[bubbacluck]

Amazing videos. I didn’t know that when we see lightning we are seeing the return strike. At least according to the video on the site.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Assumption of risk, writ real large.

I’m surprised to see, with all the adaptation of these vehicles (tracking equipment on roof, video everywhere, etc.) there was no roll cage. The Weather Channel vehicle that got airborne and rolled the other day was shown with a collapsed roof and deployed airbags. Those guys walked away, but wouldn’t a NASCAR like roll cage make sense?

[kennyboy509]

Not when you are dropped from several thousand feet.

Rest in peace storm chaser.

[driftdiver]

Died doing what he loved.

Apparently he loved being blown through the air and hitting the ground really hard.

[DoughtyOne]

One thing that had concerned me when watching these guys, is the fact that additional funnels can develop in a matter of moments. If you’re watching storm 1a and storm 1b-1d develops right over your head, you can be dog meat in short order.

[jimbo123]

** Deadly EF3 El Reno Tornado Path on 5/31/2013 *** It was this sharp turn that took the lives of three storm chasers and almost killed The Weather Channel’s crew on Friday. Within the pink outlined area is the likely zone that took everyone by surprise. The tornado was going east and then it made a sharp north turn. During occluding tornado situations this is always a danger. The teams were not aware nor prepared for this sudden sharp northeast turn and they couldn’t escape it. theweatherspace.com

[MHGinTN]

It is from such courageous pursuit of data for scientific research that advances in knowledge reach us.

[Graybeard58]

Mother Nature will eventually catch up with you, as it did in this case.

Just ask Steve Irwin.

[FAA]

This is a damned shame.

I remember Tim from his appearances on “Storm Chasers.” Ironically, on that show, I liked him so much because he seemed to be one of the saner and more level-headed chasers out there.

Something must have gone real wrong real fast.

[Black Agnes]

The bear cage is a dangerous place to be.

[DoughtyOne]

I don’t want to turn this into a debate. That’s obviously what happened.

I do want to mention that storms like these nearly always move West to East, and most often move South-west to North-east.

It would seem to me that a seasoned storm chaser would realize setting up North-east of an active storm, was about the worst thing you could possibly do.

The focus right now should be the loss of the storm-chasers, and I’m very sorry to hear about these deaths.

[Graybeard58]

I didn’t know that when we see lightning we are seeing the return strike.

I'm told that when in a thunder storm and you feel your body hair stand on end, you're about to get the big zot.

[WXRGina]

Very sad story, but awesome videos at link PING!

[exDemMom]

Engineers can do amazing things with remote robots. They can be sent into situations that are highly dangerous, while the humans controlling them are safe in another area.

I think that stormchasers want the thrill. Advancing scientific knowledge is a justification, but it’s not the reason, since knowledge can be discovered in other ways.

Of course they have the right to chase storms if they want. Just like people have the right to climb cliffs and parachute jump out of perfectly good airplanes.

[jughandle]

Can confirm that myself, only a telephone pole across the street got hit!