And, how exactly is an officer supposed to know the area to keep any car (stormchaser or not) out of? 'He was either washed off the road or tried to get out of his car. I have lived in the Oklahoma City area for 37 years and have been professionally chasing storms for the last 18 years. 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. Would one less car have been on that particular road had your proposed law been in place? Other professional meteorologists, from The Weather Channel, were injured. Rick Smith, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service at Norman, said that while the storm packed a powerful punch, it wasn't as strong as the Moore tornado. How a Legendary Storm Chaser Changed the Face of Tornado Science Police have a hard enough time now dealing with emergencies, the last thing they have time to do is stop to write tickets. 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. In many cases, a law is unenforceable at face value, but when something goes wrong it suddenly becomes part of the equation. The storm was headed toward Oklahoma City, which has more than a million people in the metro area. Having a law about something means that society wants certain things to happen or not happen. Debris: This aerial photo shows damage in the Rolling Meadow Estates neighborhood on Friday in Broken Arrow, Okla. after a tornado had passed the area, Dangerous: Forecasters warned of a 'particularly dangerous situation,' with ominous language about strong tornadoes and hail the size of grapefruits 4 inches in diameter. Three storm chasers died in that storm. Discovery Channel said it will honor the three veteran storm chasers, who regularly appeared on its show Stormchasers, with a special airing this week. This is a free country and public space is public. He gave direction to leave if in the path. Tim Samaras Cause of death Tornado incident Known for Tornado field research Spouse(s) Kathy Samaras. Because of your action, your car has become a very large and dangerous projectile. The Storm Prediction Center said scientific storm chasing is performed as safely as possible, with trained researchers using appropriate technology. But please, do we need new laws? The latter group tend to get in the way. Also, we all have to take responsibility for our own safety and try and do what's best for you. He was found hanging in his Wichita, Kansas home. According to his Discovery Channel biography, Young and Samaras tracked down over 125 tornadoes together. All rights reserved. It needs to be taught in public schools, teachers also need to take these courses. That is a real problem and has increased over time. Hoadley has been in the business for 57 years and pursued the El Reno twister. 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. They all unfortunately passed away but doing what they LOVED. ScienceBlogs is a registered trademark of Science 2.0, a science media nonprofit operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Since then, multiple versions of what happened have been claimed, and as far as I can tell, all of that is laid out in the various comments on this thread. Tens of thousands were without power, and only eight minor injuries were reported. I've literally sat bumper to bumper with chasers on a five mile strech of road. 'We're scrambling around,' said Lara O'Leary, a spokeswoman for the local ambulance agency. I live in a rural town in southern West Virginia, however we are no strangers to tornadoes in 2001 a tornado ripped several close friends houses to shreds and they were only saved by using the old bath tub trick. Humans enjoy challenges that involve risk and admire those who "cheat death". 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. Watch: The . When the winds were at their most powerful, no structures were nearby, said Rick Smith, chief warning coordination meteorologist for the weather services office in Norman. Two and half miles has been the widely accepted dimension, but if you measure wind speeds, the tornado could have been anywhere from three to 4.5 miles across. And we're wasting it on stupid, silly things like party balloons. I assume those are passed to make legislators feel good about their jobs. 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. At the same time, many helpful comments have been added to the post. 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. In fact, we probably need more professional storm chasers, and among storm chasers my feeling is that we need a better more comprehensive research design. (MORE: Reaction from Dr. Jeff Masters of Weather Underground). Were all the people blocking the road amateur chasers? In tribute to his brother, Jim Samaras posted on Facebook: Thank you to everyone for the condolences. Pictures of Storm Chaser Tim Samaras, Who Has Died . However the generic advice makes a lot of sense. Tim Samaras' Death - Cause and Date Born (Birthday) Nov 12, 1957 Death Date May 31, 2013 Age of Death 55 years Cause of Death N/A Place of Death May 31, 2013 Profession Meteorologist The meteorologist Tim Samaras died at the age of 55. Sometimes, a mismatch indicates the need for something new, like a new planet or a, "A cloud is made of billows upon billows upon billows that look like clouds. 10th St. and Radio Rd. Also dead were Tim's son, Paul, and Carl . They were screaming, Were going to die, were going to die,' Randolph told USA Today. "This is a very sad day for the meteorological community and the families of our friends lost. 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. would have made the storm hard to recognize up close. One of the first rules you hear about what to do in a tornado is "Do not try to outrun it." The fact that they did so while committing a crime allows the system to hold their feet to the fire in a more meaningful way. :) I've looked at video and have counted 458 people outside their vehicles in that small strech of road. 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. There was no place to hide.'. 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. 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. I also think that storm chasing is not necessarily a bad idea, of course it has its risks but imagine the benefits we could reap if we understood these monsters enough to harness the energy they release rather than letting it do nothing but cause a mess. That is the speed at which they rotated around the tornado, not their recorded windspeed. In Missouri, areas west of St. Louis received significant damage from an EF3 tornado Friday night that packed estimated winds of 150 mph. People were going southbound in the northbound lanes. Storm chasers should absolutely pull off the road and yield to emergency vehicles as well as people trying to escape. ScienceBlogs is where scientists communicate directly with the public. Gone. 2006-2020 Science 2.0. 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. 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? 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. The National Geographic Society made 18 grants to Tim for research over the years for field work like he was doing in Oklahoma at the time of his death, and he was one of our 2005 Emerging Explorers. We all see our own causes as noble don't we? 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. 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. An outright ban is prolly a bad idear too. But the agency upgraded the ranking after surveying damage from the twister, which along with subsequent flooding killed 18 people. This tornado was also pretty unique in that the forward speed of the sub vortices in it were at or above 150mph. Injuries that were INCOMPATIBLE WITH LIFE. Tim Samaras of Storm Chasers 5 7 (1.70 m) Born November 12, 1957 Lakewood, Colorado, USA Died May 31, 2013 El Reno, Oklahoma, USA (tornado) Spouse Kathy Samaras? to get jammed up. I doubt it. Also, consider that there is huge debris in tornadoes regardless of whether or not some amateur gets caught in 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. 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. It would have been a major problem. You have to sensor the state. Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. 'We're never going to know, because they're not here to tell us,' Mr West told The Post. 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. Rather than wishing for the cops to block storm chasers from going to work or giving untrained hayseed sheriffs deputies the responsibility of predicting tornado behavior and rerouting traffic accordingly, maybe instead of getting stuck in traffic the next time an F5 rolls through town how's about using that time digging a nice cozy little family sized hole in their back yard and stocking it with a weather radio and a couple of 12 packs of whatever passes for beer in Oklahoma. The last time we had a tornado warning where I live (July 2008), several people who work in my building actually went outside to look; luckily, the tornado never came close to us, because it was the worst one in state history (it was an EF-3 that had a 50 mile ground track). A new book chronicles his harrowing last days Maya Wei-Haas April 4, 2018 The tornado that touched down near El. Actually, to get my point all you really have to do is read the post but to restate the idea: Jamming a county road or a state or federal highway during an emergency is a public danger. This in the super rare category because we dont deal with things like this often.. So in a free country, it is possible to do as you suggest. I agree, we only need laws if we need laws. But I'll just say that I think there are less extreme solutions than putting a ban on all amateur storm chasing. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin told CNN that motorists faced great danger when stuck on any freeway in the path of a twister. I'm not saying these circumstances are sensible or humane, but they are the case nonetheless. Tim Samaras's Instagram, Twitter & Facebook on IDCrawl 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. 'That's a very unwise thing to do because it's the absolute worst place you can be during a tornado.'. This is not an especially enforceable regulation". It is not like the Tornadoes have a rule book that if we follow we are safe. She quickly regretted it. There's no wiggle room. Troopers requested a number of ambulances at I-40 near Yukon, west of Oklahoma City. You argued that your car could become a dangerous projectile if you intentionally drive into a strong tornado, but so could cars in parking lots. The authors are Joshua Wurman, Karen Kosiba and Paul Robinson with the Center for Severe Weather Research, and Timothy Marshall of Haag Engineering, a damage-path surveyor from Flower Mound whom I interviewed for our cover story on the tornado. I dont think there has been a single case (correct me if im wrong) of external injury or property damage due to a chasers car getting picked up by a tornado. 'My car was actually lifted off the road and then set back down,' Ms Black said. Roughly speaking, this is the equivalent of driving down the highway at several tens of miles an hour and suddenly flipping, three or four times. People who chase storms need to back off a little bit. "He looked at tornadoes not for the spotlight of TV but for the scientific aspect. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. 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. independent local journalism in Dallas. Video taken by a number of storm chasers showed debris pelting vehiclesFriday. He knew where not to be and in this case the tornado took a clear turn toward them," he said. It needs to be taught FREE for the public as well. 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. It is not inforceable. The Friday storm, however, brought with it much more severe flooding. Don't create a law just to feel better because people died. For example, a highly irresponsible storm chaser endangers an innocent bystander, then that danger comes to fruition. The breathtakingly fast subvortex -- the tornado within a tornado -- is visible to the south in footage captured by fellow chaser Dan Robinson's rear dashboard cameras as he fled several hundred yards ahead of Samaras. 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. It almost stopped, then went East. 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. 'What got me scared was being stuck in traffic with sirens going off,' she 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. 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. 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. Driving away several hours ahead of time is one thing, but this guy was telling people to drive at the same time he was saying the tornado was impending! But what I would really like to ask is this. They were just miles from the city of Moore, which was devastated by a massive tornado that killed 24 people on May 20. Another two or three miles east and we would have been looking at a death toll in the hundreds. Scientists just confirmed a 30-foot void first detected inside the monument years ago. Tornado Chaser Tim Samaras's Interview, Hours Before His Death Hopefully, that lesson will be learned immediately. Sheriff Cody Carpenter and a wildlife officer had been checking on houses that were in danger of being flooded. Contrast that, as bad as it was, with Dan Robinson's video from the El Reno, OK tornado that killed Tim Samaras, his son Paul and his long-time chase partner Carl Young. Anything else is just going to lead to panic like the panic that killed people on the 31st. Twistex Memorial dedicated to 3 killed in El Reno. Tornado warnings were also posted Friday night near Tulsa and near St. Louis. So, lets go back to the advice again. 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, and ambulances are trying to get in to pick up injured, and out to bring them to hospitals, you cant walk down Main Street. Storm chasers react to the wrongful death lawsuit against The Weather Are they going to fire that weather reporter who told listeners to drive into the tornado? The interstate was shut down due to the storm, with multiple crashes and injuries. 1:50PM. I hold a degree in atmospheric and oceanic sciences. From the Texas border to near Joplin, Mo., residents were told to keep an eye to the sky and an ear out for sirens. 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. One is that people may have been encouraged via chatter in a number of places to use "driving away" as their strategy for getting away from this particular tornado. The program, 'Mile Wide Tornado: Stormchasers Tribute,' will feature scenes of Tim Samaras, his son Paul and Mr Young. 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 distance of a half mile or so, it was said by numerous news sources that this car had been trapped by a traffic jam caused by looky-loos who wanted to see the tornado and/or people sent out on the roads by a local weather reporter to "escape." Turner High School, Texas Bill Would Make Illegal Voting a Felony, City Council To Discuss Allowing Neighborhoods To 'Opt-In' for Short-Term Rentals in Dallas. Storm chasers killed: How did it happen? - CSMonitor.com In 2013, Tim Samaras died in one of the epic storms he'd spent decades chasing. However, the men's deaths have shone a spotlight on the dangers of storm chasing. It was NOT caused by a traffic jam. Shelters up the price of homes, making homes much less affordable for many people. He was killed because an unusual and unprecedented tornado acted in an unpredictable manor and sadly cost him, his son, and chase partner their lives. 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. Tim Samaras was found inside his car with his seat belt still on. 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. This is my last post at Scienceblogs.com. The comments below have not been moderated. Their car was found upright in a ditch with its wheels blown off and the engine a quarter-mile away. Can we bring a species back from the brink?, Video Story, Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. This is an enormous loss for his family, his wide circle of friends and colleagues and National Geographic.'. 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. 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. When the amateur storm chasers descend upon the same area they create a real hazard for the professionals by blocking escape routes. But that. Very few professional storm chasers "work for the government" really, none. See also: The Last Ride of Legendary Storm Chaser Tim Samaras). More than half of those were people who had been cut or pierced. The spot a few yards off Reuter Road where the body of Tim Samaras was found inside the crushed vehicle (his son. Tim Samaras, 55, his son Paul, 24, and crew member Carl Young, 45, died in El Reno on Friday They were heard on Oklahoma Highway Patrol radio screaming before they were killed The elder Samaras was. Do it right now,' local news forecasters told viewers. 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. Probably many thing contributed to what happened. 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. (KFOR TV). 'Somebody driving along really not familiar with what's going on can basically drive into it.'. The point of this post is to note two things that I can't prove are relevant in this case but certainly are relevant generally. The reason that is bad advice is very simple. I also think its called natural selection. 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? According to Mr West, their vehicle looked ' like it had gone through a trash compactor' when it was found. 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. I am stunned that that any forecaster indicated people should drive anywhere after 5pm that day. Despite the horrible fact that some two dozen people died in the Moore tornado last week, there were tens of thousands of people directly in that tornados path, hiding out in low interior rooms within their homes or other buildings, who survived. That was the sound of nuance rushing by your libertarian ear. 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. That's two more vehicles going into the danger zone. The tornado caught up with him and his crew and ended them. Finally do what we did in California for earthquakes. Probably not. The worry soon turned to flash flooding and floodwaters topped four feet in Oklahoma City on Saturday morning. When she realized she was a sitting duck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, Ms Black turned around and found herself directly in the path of the most violent part of the storm. With better data, we could get better forecasts of Southern Hemisphere storms. This advice sounds reasonable, but it really isnt. 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. 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, which appeared to be in the midst of a sharp change in direction. More than 210,000 customers lost electricity in the areas affected by the storm. 3) "I suggest that law makers in tornado alley states consider legislation making it a violation to intentionally drive into or near the path of known or likely tornados." They need to better forecast for a chaser convergence and prepare to block roads. The Oklahoma City metro district has about 1.3 million people. Helium is a precious, non-renewable resource. Chaser traffic, maybe. 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. It is emotional to posit "people died, let's make a law" without really identifying a true cause. They look up that license plate in the DMV database and conveniently send the summons to you in the mail. I'm Sooner born and Sooner bred and I learned early that a car is one of the most dangerous places to be in a tornado. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. 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. Violent weather also moved through the St. Louis area. It isn't just the clouds that appear smooth, but aren't if you zoom in close.
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