Posted on 06/05/2013 3:45:55 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
DENVER - The news of the deaths of storm chasers Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras, and veteran chasing partner Carl Young have stunned the storm chasing and weather science community and left many questions unanswered.
How did this happen to one of the most cautious and safest storm chasers in the country? How did the team find themselves trapped in a tornado? What happened?
"He was just caught up in a very unfortunate situation, where he was tracking a tornado and the tornado turned against him and there was no way he could get out from it," Tim's brother, Jim Samaras, told 7NEWS.
The three men were killed Friday by an EF-3 tornado that tore through El Reno, a suburb of Oklahoma City. The tornado, which packed winds of 165 mph, also killed 10 others.
Storm chasers in the area say that it was a highly erratic, multi-vortex tornado, with a mesocyclone, or parent storm, that measured about 4 miles in diameter.
"According to some of the storm chasers I've talked to, Tim and his team were on a two lane road and one of these rogue vortexes may have literally dropped right on top of them," said 24/7 Chief Meteorologist Mike Nelson. "The mesocyclone was dropping down and pulling up these tornadoes around it. It was like an octopus with many tentacles."
However, the data is still inconclusive as to whether the team's vehicle was hit by one of these vortices, or by the main tornado, which was about a mile wide.
"When the tornado made that sudden turn to the north, it caught everyone off guard," said Tony Laubach, a 7NEWS storm chaser and Samaras friend who was looking into the radar data to find out what happened.
He was chasing the same storm a couple of miles south.
He said the tornado was moving east/southeast, when it hit Highway 81 and made a sharp 120 degree turn to the northeast and accelerated.
"It was moving an average 25-35 mph, and it turned and accelerated to 40-45 mph," Laubach said.
The Chevrolet Cobalt that the men were in was one of their typical chase vehicles, but it doesn't have the power to outrun 80 mph winds -- which was what may have been headed their way, Laubach said.
The tornado's movement apparently caught many by surprise. Several chasers positioned north of the storm were also caught unaware. The Weather Channel 's chase vehicle was thrown several hundred yards and the driver suffered multiple broken bones.
Add to that increased congestion on the roads.
"Tornadoes by their nature are unpredictable, and can change course unexpectedly, or pop up suddenly," Jeff Masters wrote in a Weather Underground blog. "It’s particularly dangerous when a tornado is wrapped in rain, making it hard to see, or if a chaser is operating in a heavily populated area, where roads may suddenly become congested. All four of these conditions occurred Friday during the El Reno tornado."
When the team's car was found, it was a mangled heap of metal. Tim Samaras was still buckled in his seat. His 24-year-old son, Paul, and Carl Young had been pulled out of the car by the storm. One of them was found dead a half-mile away, according to ABC News.
Storm chasers converged in the area over the weekend and have since found a couple of cameras, backpacks, cell phones and three of Samaras' probes, which had been turned on and was recording data, Nelson said.
That data and those cameras could hold vital clues as to what happened.
The families take some solace knowing that Tim, Paul and Carl died doing what they loved, but it's still a startling end to one the pioneers in the storm chasing field, not known to be reckless.
"Of all the hundreds of storm chasers that roam that Great Plains Tim and his crew would the last ones I would expect to run into harm's way," Nelson said. "I have known Tim for over 20 years, he was the most brilliant and most careful severe weather researcher of them all. Tim was not a cowboy, he was as cautious as possible about his approach to studying these dangerous storms."
However, their deaths underscore the unpredictability and danger of being a storm chaser.
"Tim has chased 1,000 tornadoes and much like an astronaut, there are inherent risks. And even if you do everything right, something can go wrong. It's a dangerous profession," Nelson said.
Tim Samaras became fascinated with tornadoes while watching "The Wizard of Oz" while he was 6. While he initially started chasing tornadoes for the thrill of it he later combined that passion with his engineering background, and sought to find answers about how to improve tornado warning systems and better forecast tornadoes.
He founded TWISTEX (Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling of Tornadoes Experiment) and invented probes that measured wind velocity, pressure drops and other data.
"Tim made scientific history with the TWISTEX Probe, jokingly referred to as “the turtle" because of its shape. By deploying these probes into a tornado’s path, Tim, along with Carl, provided key data for researchers studying the storm’s movements and deadly force. The information collected has directly resulted in increased warning time for local authorities to tell residents to take cover," said Eileen O'Neill, president of Discovery Network.
His son, Paul, had a talent for capturing tornadoes on film.
"Paul was goofy, and it was fun to watch him grow over the years. He was so quiet in the early times, and to watch him become someone who could capture a moment so vividly. He shot one of the most amazing tornado photos I have ever seen hanging out the window of my Mesonet car in Oklahoma back in 2011. Myself and Ed Grubb would always laugh cause we'd take great shots then see Paul's, and just shake our heads cause he just had the talent. He was quirky, fun, and just so easy going," Laubach said.
Carl Young was featured with Samaras on the Discovery Channel's "Storm Chasers" show. They starred in the series for three years before the TV show was canceled in 2012.
Young had been working with Samaras every spring since 2003 and together they tracked more than 125 tornadoes, according to his bio on the "Storm Chasers" website.
In 2000, he decided to take off on a two month storm chasing adventure in the Great Plains hoping to catch a glimpse of a few tornadoes but ended up with over a dozen twister encounters. This inspiration led Carl to the study of tornado dynamics and ultimately a masters degree in atmospheric science from the University of Nevada, Reno. While attending a meteorological conference, Carl met Tim Samaras who encouraged him to collect meteorological data from inside tornadoes as the principal focus of his thesis research.
Samaras documented and narrated what he did in a YouTube video, recognizing the danger inherit in his field. "At times I have mixed feelings about chasing the storms," he said in the video. "On one hand they are incredibly beautiful, on the other hand these powerful storms can create devastating damage that change people lives forever."
Services for Tim and Paul Samaras are pending. They are expected to be held Thursday in the Denver metro area.
There is an excellent article here: http://www.wunderground.com/news/el-reno-oklahoma-city-tornadoes-recap-20130601
If someone was going to die...it was going to be someone like Tim Samaras and Carl Young. They were scientist conducting some pretty dangerous (but very necessary) experiments. They had to get into the path of the tornado they were chasing...whereas the typical tornado chaser/thrill-seeker stays on the SW quad of it...out of the hail and wind. Couple that with the extremely fast movement of the vorts around the main cell and it's a recipe for disaster.
Once again...the DUmp shows it doesn't have the monopoly on ignorant board members.
Doing something that has 0.1% risk of killing you is fairly safe. Once. Making a career of taking a 0.1% risk a thousand times, means that your luck WILL run out at some point.
That's true...unfortunately. It takes a LOT of money to do what Samaras does...and what the VORTEX 2 (DOW Team)/Josh Wurman teams do. LOTS of money.
Here is what people don't understand: If these guys and gals weren't doing this...we would be back 15 years in technology and understanding of tornadoes. That means a 20 minute lead time would be a 10 minute lead time.
Somebody has to fly the gemini mission so we can land on the moon.
There’s no other way to get data on the lowest thirty feet of the atmosphere during a tornado than to plant these instruments in the path. And as Samaris himself said, the lowest thirty feet are most important because that is where we all live.
There is never a great time to die...no matter what the movies say...but I guess the best one can hope for is to die a death doing what you love or for something/someone you love.
Samaras, not Samaris
You chase enough tornadoes and eventually one will chase you. Don’t mess with Mother Nature because she’ll win every time.
Wow, that’s amazing.
I listened to a discussion of this on local radio with meteorologists and their consensus was that the data provided by these stormchasers was miniscule with very little benefit to tornado forecasting. But it is a lucrative business for the pictures and the videos and it will continue.
Dr. Greg Frobes said the same thing on TWC the other day. Basically (paraphrase): "We can look at a tornado from space and from 10K feet...but if we really want to know what is going on we have to look at the surface...at the first 30 feet...and there isn't any other way to do it except get in its way like Tim did..."
I've been losing my cool on a lot of these threads. To me...comparing Samaras to a thrill seeker is like comparing John Glenn to a thrill seeker...or the Challenger crew to a group of 7 sky-divers. Yes...there is a a rush getting in front of a tornado...just like there is getting shot into space...but the rush was not the mission.
So to say this about Samaras is to say the same about the columbia/challenger crews: that they were a bunch of thrill seekers who got what they deserved...and that is to kill the human spirit...it's sense of adventure and it's need to know WHY.
Examples?
And considering you have no clue about what I do you can stick that “ignorant” comment where the sun don’t shine.
The data was not just for forecasting...but also for structural engineers. It provided a piece of the puzzle. You have the DOW/VORTEX providing a piece of it...others providing a piece of it...and TWISTEX providing a piece of it. Then researchers (in the off-season) spend a lot more time that I can even think about trying to put it all together.
The biggest question of all is: WHY. Why do some tstms form tornadoes and others do not. Why can a moderate risk area produce a Moore Tornado...EF-5? Is there a "God particle" that we are missing? Some hidden index that could be calculated using some temp/wind/humidity level? It's something that has puzzled me for years...and I'm a tropical/hurricane specialist. Eventually with enough data...someone will discover it. It could be 100 years from now...but it will happen. That new "Bulk-Richardson/CAPE-Index-#"...that if it's "X"...then expect EF-3's...if Z...then get in the bunker.
You can see some of the little vortices rotating counterclockwise around the leading edge of the funnel in the Mike Bettes crew video taken out of their car window, a few seconds before they got hit. They almost look like dust devils - it was probably not apparent to any of the chasers how strong they were.
“The three men were killed Friday by an EF-3 tornado that tore through El Reno, a suburb of Oklahoma City. The tornado, which packed winds of 165 mph, also killed 10 others.”
Article from yesterday states that the El Reno tornado was the widest tornado on record, 2.6 miles. The tornado was also upgraded from an EF-3 to an EF-5 with windspeeds up to 295 miles per hour.
Thanks for posting this. Apparently the EF5 was made up of several tornadoes running the basic same path.
Many of the roads in Oklahoma are built along 1 mile wide sections of land. If you got caught in the path of a monster like this, you probably couldn’t outrun or get to a side road.
“Yes...it’s an old article. When I read the update on the storm...it helped explain a lot. It was an EF-5...not a 3 like originally thought...and it is now the record holder for the largest tornado at 2.6 miles....but here is the truly AMAZING part...and as a meteorologist...I can’t even FATHOM this: It had satellite vortices that were moving around the parent cell at upwards of 185 mph. So...you had the main tornado moving at 24 mph with the little vortices rotating at 185 mph around it....and they contained winds of over 295 mph. This is unheard of.
There is an excellent article here:
http://www.wunderground.com/news/el-reno-oklahoma-city-tornadoes-recap-20130601
Do we as yet have an understanding as to how/why a tornado changes direction so rapidly?..The article mentions a 120 degree direction shift in a matter of seconds. I always thought that they were driven/steered by the uupper wind currents, and generally moved along a southwest to northeast axis.
No man escapes death. Better to die with your boots on then writhering in a hospice bed some where...”
A good friend’s dad will turn 100 this month, and there will be a big celebration of relatives and friends.
His creed is simple: “I want to wear out doing things I want to do instead of rusting out in a nursing home!”
Yeah, I was going to add this, too. It was an EF-5 (subsequent Doppler radar analysis measured winds at 295 MPH multiple times) and was 2.6 miles wide at the widest, a record. Massively dangerous storm, with multiple vortices. Not surprised that someone got killed.
I’m inclined to agree that it would have little value for forecasting.
And I am not convinced that their efforts are going to save all these lives I keep hearing people talk about.
Saying that, don’t get me wrong. I’m as interested in scientific data as the next guy, probably a whole lot more. And I would defend a persons right to go in and collect info, insofar as it in no way endangers the lives/well beings of other folks.
I have two impressions from watching the tornado coverage. This is now an annual springtime event and is becoming more and more predictable. (The season itself, not the individual storms).
FIRST:
Most of the coverage I have seen is shot by somebody driving around in a beat-up PU cowboying it and thinking they’re going to save the world or something.
For most, they are not. It is foolhardy to even think about messing with these storms.
SECOND:
Every year, we see the aerial videos after the storm passes.
You see debris everywhere. You see something else.
You see mile after mile of concrete slabs that used to have houses on them.
Few basements. Very few. Even fewer storm shelters.
Any efforts towards saving lives needs to go with two goals in mind.
Early detection, and the construction of easily accessible, widely available storm shelters.
I doubt the data being collected now will help in either of those efforts, it might help with predictions, but I’m still inclined to think stuff like doppler radars and data from orbit are more valuable.
Whether the pressure at the focus of the storm is 800 millibars or 500 millibars or 300 millibars is practically at the point of being a scientific curiosity, not a determining factor.
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