When she emerged from the freezer her car windshield had been shattered by the hail. More than 210,000 customers lost electricity in the areas affected by the storm. 'The trees were leaning literally to the ground. The people who drove away did find shelter after what sounded like a very fearful drive. It was NOT caused by a traffic jam. Storm Chaser Tim Samaras Dies; His Last Tornado Footage . 'He was either washed off the road or tried to get out of his car. Also, consider that there is huge debris in tornadoes regardless of whether or not some amateur gets caught in it. Smith said the storms 2.6-mile path besting a record set in 2004 in Hallam, Neb. As for the accuracy of the cause of death of the Twistex team, I report here what was said at the time. 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. Tornado warnings were also posted Friday night near Tulsa and near St. Louis. Here's the before photo, of Mr. Samaras' car. On the one hand, researchers have to pay the bills somehow, and this is one way to do it. When told to seek shelter, many ventured out and snarled traffic across the metro area - perhaps remembering the damage from May 20. It will NEVER happen. Storm chasers being killed by storms isn't even a problem. Sean, I agree on all points. 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. Another two or three miles east and we would have been looking at a death toll in the hundreds. 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. A two-and-a-half mile wide tornado would not look like a tornado to a lot of people, Smith said. Please make a tax-deductible donation if you value independent science communication, collaboration, participation, and open access. Saying "Stay out of moore" wold just turn the would-be chasers in another direction that a storm or twister could emerge from. 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. I recently found the article on the el Reno tornado you wrote several years ago and I was struck by the naivety of your arguments on laws banning chasing. A finite resource. I made the decision to go home since I have a shelter, and i was able to leave work and be home close to 4pm. There is only so much space to get away and so many roads to use, many in poor repair. 'We're scrambling around,' said Lara O'Leary, a spokeswoman for the local ambulance agency. 528 people were killed by weather in 2012, of which about 200 were a result of high velocity air. Chasing Tornado's. Another example of this on a NATIONAL level and not just a local level is Season 5 episode 6 of Storm Chasers (The discovery channel show that followed three chaser groups) where Joel Taylor, Reed Timmer, and Chris Chittick all call friends and family on their cellphones advising them to drive away from Yukon, OK and Norman, OK. Actually pointing those in Yukon into the path of the Pidemont, OK tornado. The other hit Moore, a city about 25 miles away from El Reno, on May 20, killing 24 people and causing widespread damage. Television images showed downed power lines and tossed cars as the storm systems dumped at least three inches of rain, stranding motorists in flood water. I havent seen any good arguments yet that storm chasers and others on the road during a tornado are posing a danger to anyone but themselves. understanding tornadoes will prevent this from happening. Our hearts also go out to the Carl Young family as well as they are feeling the same feelings we are today. They were probably thinking, "somebody should do something about this situation.". 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. If you want to walk down Main Street, in downtown America, you can do that, because it is America. Then we have police in the mix attempting somehow to cite the stupid? The other chaser killed was caught in traffic but I find it sad that the community never claims him as a chaser but rather a thrill seeker. Vented to the atmosphere, it eventually makes its way to the exosphere and is light enough to escape to space. His video consisted of really high quality camera work of weather and the focus wasn't on him. 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. I was visiting OKC from Kansas City that day. 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. 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. Absolutely educate people on the safest way to ride out a storm. -Benoit Mandelbrot Were 20 of those people storm chasers? 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. Thacker, as you might recall, wrote a highly biased article with Charles, Every timeyou follow the motion of a spacecraft, moon, planet or other object through the Solar System, you're putting the theory of gravity to the test. But what about big storms that dont drop tornadoes? When the amateur storm chasers descend upon the same area they create a real hazard for the professionals by blocking escape routes. I think this tornado did some stuff we didn't expect. Their deaths may not seem surprising; storm chasing, as you might expect, has its risks. Anyone can be wrong and that includes forcasters on tv, government and business emergency policies. 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. This tornado was a once in a decade if not longer event that we have truly never seen anything like. Either prospect is equally remarkable. Tim's death is a stark reminder of the risks encountered regularly by the men and women who work for us. 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. A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. If idiots who don't know what they're doing want to drive into a twister, let them. Tim shared data and results. What's eerie is that the subvortex becomes stationary on the road, like it chose to stop right on top of them. But the hundreds, or even thousands of non-professional storm chasers are probably not contributing to the science of tornadoes and tornado safety. 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. In tribute to his brother, Jim Samaras posted on Facebook: Thank you to everyone for the condolences. 2006-2020 Science 2.0. Tim was a couple of miles south of interstate. 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. And for several minutes you car is shoved around on the surface like you were a puck in a game of air hockey, with the car slamming into other cars and other cars slamming into you, and each car being turned over now and then. I won't be joining them on the roads. 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. We need sensors in place, in advance of the storms. Samaras was born November 12, 1957 in Lakewood, Colorado, to Paul T. and Margaret L. Samaras. 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,. Three veteran storm chasers were among the 10 people killed, Dallas Area Storms Cause Power Transformer To Explode. 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. The people could be driving for many unattributed reasons. 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. 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. "He was a groundbreaker in terms of the kind of research he was doing on severe thunderstorms and tornadoes," Dr. Forbes said on The Weather Channel Sunday morning. Meteorologist Mike Bette is nursing minor injuries after his 'tornado hunt' car was thrown some 200 yards by the storm. The groundbreaking promise of cellular housekeeping. Specious arguments at best. This is an enormous loss for his family, his wide circle of friends and colleagues and National Geographic.'. What this weather forecaster just did was to advice a couple/few tens of thousands of people in the path of a tornado to get in their cars and drive in the same direction. But the main circulation was crawling with smaller tornadoes, some moving at speeds of 260 feet per second (177 mph), according to the report.