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. (MORE: Tornado Hunt Team Takes Direct Hit by Tornado). I hope that newscasters are better informed about the advice they should give and that this tragedy is never repeated. 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. Saying "Stay out of moore" wold just turn the would-be chasers in another direction that a storm or twister could emerge from. I'm not saying I agree with it, but this is not something he suddenly started doing. 'The fact that it could happen to someone like Tim, it could happen to me, it could happen to anybody. His graduation was at Alameda International High School in 1976. If they had tried to drive away their cars would have surely been torn apart, and again just last summer a tornado ripped through the forests close to home demolishing hill sides and houses in its path. And what of its width? We are part of Science 2.0,a science education nonprofit operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. People who are paying for the storm chasing experience are expecting to do pretty much the same thing. There are many chasers who do stop to render aid and time and time again they are often the first to reach the victims in crucial first moments with skills to save lives. None of those fancy schemes work. Not sure what happened with Tim. National Geographic explorer and storm chaser Tim Samaras devoted his life to unlocking the mysteries of extreme weather. The elder Samaras' body was still belted into their Chevrolet Cobalt, which was found on an unimproved county road parallel to Interstate 40. In Missouri, areas west of St. Louis received significant damage from an EF3 tornado Friday night that packed estimated winds of 150 mph. Paul (1925-2005) was a photographer and model . Friday night's storm formed out on the prairie west of Oklahoma City, giving residents plenty of advance notice. At the same time, many helpful comments have been added to the post. At the end of the day this is just a silly notion. " Even if the people who are at risk of vehicular projectiles are innocent bystanders, chances are they're at more risk from the tornado than the cars in them. It dumped around 8 inches of rain on Oklahoma City in the span of a few hours and made the tornado difficult to spot for motorists trying to beat it home. 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. Such a law or regulation could be more general, specifying that police have the authority to direct people generally in relation to emergency disaster zones that have not happened yet. Why are you so quick to blame the TV and not the idiots living in the heart of tornado alley who chose to get in a car when they knew there were already tornadoes in the area? This storm changed track. I am not a believer in public shelters, so we need more people to take advantage of state and county rebate programs to get their own shelters. It truly is sad that we lost my great brother Tim and his great son, Paul. Another two or three miles east and we would have been looking at a death toll in the hundreds. So, that apparent fact was part of the underpinning of the original post (below). 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. At the end of the day, he wanted to save lives and he gave the ultimate sacrifice for that," Jim Samaras said. Which travel companies promote harmful wildlife activities? They all unfortunately passed away but doing what they LOVED. 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. Was the chaser causing harm? He turned and saw at me peering up from the basement steps! from a major non profit, click through the the X Blog to read the press release. According to his Discovery Channel biography, Young and Samaras tracked down over 125 tornadoes together. to get jammed up. 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. 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. Then, when the car is done flipping, it gets flipped again. 564K views 9 years ago June 3, 2013Tim Samaras spent more than 30 years researching tornadoes. I would like to see some repercussions for the idiotic weather personalities who suggested running away. 'I started seeing power flashes to the north, and I said "screw this." He designed, built, and deployed instrument probes to measure atmospheric variables such as pressure and wind in the path of tornadoes. This storm was erratic and there will be more storms just like it in the future. It isn't just the clouds that appear smooth, but aren't if you zoom in close. Dallas' independent source of But Fridays massive tornado avoided the highly populated areas near and around Oklahoma City, and forecasters said that likely saved lives. But, the idea of outrunning instead of staying home was on people's minds because of things that had been said earlier in various media. Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. 'The car was probably about 60 to 70 per cent of its normal size because it had been pushed and mauled and compacted as it was tumbling down the road. He attempted to take his own life and spent several days in intensive care before ultimately succumbing to his injuries. In fact, one could argue that a new law is not needed and this power is already available to police and emergency response agencies. 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. With better data, we could get better forecasts of Southern Hemisphere storms. To me the real imperative is to get a tornado shelter in most homes and businesses and educate the general public about what to do and what not to do. Hopefully, that lesson will be learned immediately. The men worked as a team and Tim Samaras had received 18 grants from the National Geographic Society for work in the field. Like wadded up,' he told the Washington Post. In reply to by Tom McDonald (not verified). They were probably thinking, somebody should do something about this situation.". 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. Plan for a lifetime, like I did. 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. 528 people were killed by weather in 2012, of which about 200 were a result of high velocity air. I appreciate that, it is a good idea. St. Helens in 1980: some volcano researchers were killed in the eruption, but authorities were successful at keeping most civilians out of the danger zone. 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. 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. Mr. Robinson also had forward and side facing dash cams operating that day and the Twistex crew's Chevy is the only other vehicle visible in any direction on Reuter Rd for the last 15 or 20 minutes of the chase. Deadly profession: Storm chasers Tim Samaras (center) and crew member Carl Young (right) were killed on Friday in a tornado that ripped through El Reno, Oklahoma, Dangers: Paul Samaras, 24, (left) and Carl Young, 45, (right) were killed as they conducted research during the tornadoes in Oklahoma this weekend, On the edge: The storm chasers were killed as they followed the tornado in Oklahoma on Friday as the death toll rose to 18 today, Deadly twister: Three storm chasers were among at least 18 people killed following the tornado which touched down near El Reno on Friday. 'That's a very unwise thing to do because it's the absolute worst place you can be during a tornado.'. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous. 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. So, regarding the question of traffic: first, I know. A mans world? 'We're scrambling around,' said Lara O'Leary, a spokeswoman for the local ambulance agency. Finally do what we did in California for earthquakes. Big blue trash cans were being tossed around like a piece of paper in the wind. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. It was over in just minutes, when we climbed the stairs half the house was gone but nearly all the houses on the street in back of us where gone! The article was entitled, disturbingly, Scientists, Give Up Your Emails. 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. 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. The . Twistex Memorial dedicated to 3 killed in El Reno. The scale is based on observable destruction, and little was damaged as it tracked through the remote, relatively featureless farm country. . I would like to point out that Mike Morgan, the meterologist at KFOR, did what he's done successfully many times since May 24, 2011. Also dead were Tim's son, Paul, and Carl . Long story short, I and many others took cover in the hotel bathroom as the tornado headed straight toward us (to hit at 7:05). This report indicates he's more right than he could have known. It will NEVER happen. I can't imagine the trauma of living through a tornado strike. "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. The boy and other family members had sought shelter in a drainage ditch. In this country, if a cyclone alert is issued, all roads are closed. The storm path could have gone many other directions. Bats and agaves make tequila possibleand theyre both at risk, This empress was the most dangerous woman in Rome. I had spotty phone connection with my husband watching TV in Kansas City, and my sister watching from Edmond, OK. Just as it was coming toward us, it turned south. And, how exactly is an officer supposed to know the area to keep any car (stormchaser or not) out of? Flood waters up to 4ft deep hampered rescue attempts and frequent lightning roiled the skies well after the main threat had passed to the east. What is wind chill, and how does it affect your body? This in the super rare category because we dont deal with things like this often.. 'They were screaming, "We're going to die, we're going to die,"' she recalled to USA Today. Long COVID patients turn to unproven treatments, Why evenings can be harder on people with dementia, This disease often goes under-diagnosedunless youre white, This sacred site could be Georgias first national park, See glow-in-the-dark mushrooms in Brazils other rainforest, 9 things to know about Holi, Indias most colorful festival, Anyone can discover a fossil on this beach. I'm reminded of Grand Island, NE in 1980, when the tornadoes defied everything we supposedly know about them. I am thinking these scientists were blaming the storm track far more than the traffic. In 2013, Tim Samaras died in one of the epic storms he'd spent decades chasing. They all unfortunately passed away but doing what they loved.'. 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. But it is a free country, and if people want to be foolish then so be it. 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. To make this point, here are photographs from major media of a handful of examples of cars that got hit with the vortex, most but not all from this latest tornado: I admit that a flattened house may look pretty bad, may even look worse than a mushed up car, but generally speaking the interior lower floor room in a house that is badly messed up by a tornado is a survivable shelter, while there is no such shelter in your car. Biography - A Short Wiki Or, amateurs could get to a good viewing area well ahead of anticipated severe weather, and then stay put and off the road. 'There is very low visibility with the heavy rain so we're having trouble getting around. Flash flooding accounted for some of the deaths, such as that of a 65-year-old man who died on Saturday when his car drove off a damaged bridge in eastern Oklahoma County. After seeing last month's tornado also turn homes into piles of splintered rubble, Ms Black said she decided to try and outrun the tornado when she learned her southwest Oklahoma City home was in harm's way. 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. 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. It was NOT caused by a traffic jam. Many still believe mountains and rivers save towns. 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. The rest of the report deals with how we quantify El Reno, which surprisingly can be pretty subjective. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. He said "you need to be below ground [pause] if you can drive south bla bla bla", Does this mean "you need to be below ground, but if you are in you car in the path of the tornado you can drive south", Or does this mean "you need to be below ground or if you can drive south, go and drive south". Having a law about something means that society wants certain things to happen or not happen. I do regard some of the complaints I've gotten, especially some of the really nasty ones I've gotten by email, to be excuse making. Which, I think, was one of Greg's original points. I remember my wife telling me a few years ago about her retail stores tornado policy which was contrary to everything I knew about safety during a storm. We need infrastructure built! #1. the storms path was extremely erratic and it made a sudden turn that surprised even veteran forecasters. But the agency upgraded the ranking after surveying damage from the twister, which along with subsequent flooding killed 18 people. The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported on Saturday that Oklahoma City-area hospitals treated 104 people. Yes, they died, but there is ZERO evidence this law, if passed, would have prevented even one of them. That's why safety experts say you need a plan. The unqualified version of that advice is If there is a tornado coming your way now, get in your car and drive away fast. That is also bad advice. But what I would really like to ask is this. Because of your action, your car has become a very large and dangerous projectile. However the generic advice makes a lot of sense. None of them contributes to the scientific research and experimentation going on. The shredded pieces of the car hook to the south then across the road to the northeast: I have difficulty fathoming the violence implied in that paragraph. The cause of his death remains unclear at this time, but several of his friends shared the sad news on social media, commemorating the. How a zoo break-in changed the life of an owl called Flaco, Naked mole rats are fertile until they die, study finds. 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. The EF5 storm that hit Moore decimated neighborhoods. I'm not sure about your claim that there was not a traffic jam, that conflicts with everything else I've heard. He will be missed. Become a member to support the independent voice of Dallas Injuries that were INCOMPATIBLE WITH LIFE. 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. They never follow the same track. 'The trees were leaning literally to the ground. I doubt it. But yes, I agree that people deliberately in the wrong place at the wrong time should be penalized. :) Officials added five victims on Monday to the confirmed list of dead from the tornadoes and from storms that caused severe flooding: three adults and two unidentified children, the medical examiner's office said. I've literally sat bumper to bumper with chasers on a five mile strech of road. (MORE: Reaction from Dr. Jeff Masters of Weather Underground). Photograph by Carsten Peter, National Geographic. "This is a very sad day for the meteorological community and the families of our friends lost. 'We're never going to know, because they're not here to tell us,' Mr West told The Post. Northeast of St. Louis and across the Mississippi River, the city of Roxana was hit by an EF3 tornado, but National Weather Service meteorologist Jayson Gosselin said it wasn't clear whether the damage in both states came from the same EF3 twister or separate ones. After the devastation of the Moore tornado, many residents who had experiences the storms before decided to ignore advice to stay home and tried to seek shelter elsewhere. A 51-year-old teacher's assistant who also tried to run from the storm said she quickly regretted her decision, after becoming stuck in traffic in the path of the tornado. 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. It encouraged all, including the media and amateurs, to chase safely to avoid a repeat of Friday's deaths. Common sense will tell you to collect the data that meteorologist have had for years about how tornado's form and come up with an idea that makes these conditions less favorable maybe even do tests on a smaller scale. ", Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Stop having idiots chase things. Officials in St. Charles County also reported that local schools suffered some damage. Here's the before photo, of Mr. Samaras' car. So in a free country, it is possible to do as you suggest. Yes, Houston is a bigger city than OKC, and one of the freeway routes out of town takes you to Galveston, which is exactly the wrong way to go. That wasnt the only broadcaster telling people to evacuate instead of hunker down. They should not drive where they will not be able to pull over safely to allow emergency traffic and other traffic to flow. One of Earth's loneliest volcanoes holds an extraordinary secret. These animals can sniff it out. Apply that technology to license plates instead of faces. Having grown up in Wichita, Ks., I'm well aware of the unpredictability of tornadoes; though technology has greatly improved forcasting, tornadoes will remain highly unpredictable. I can only assume that Tim Samaras had no intention of being in the path of the the tornado that killed him, his son, and his colleague, but was unable to get out of the way because of the traffic jam. 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. With all due respect, Mr. Laden's article suggesting outlawing or making storm chasing illegal and only permissible for the "authorities" is a typical misguided response after a emotional tragedy. The traffic could have been created for any number of reasons. It made all the difference that it was out in the country.'. 'It was chaos. The tornado was unpredictable. You're an excellent writer. I agree that telling people that the safest thing to do is to get in their car and drive is wrong. 'The trees were leaning literally to the ground. This is my last post at Scienceblogs.com. Meteorologists had warned about particularly nasty weather Friday but said the storm's fury didn't match that of the tornado that struck Moore. 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. There is a great irony to the deaths of the three storm chasers from Twistex. Tim Samaras was found inside his car with his seat belt still on. It almost stopped, then went East. One of the first rules you hear about what to do in a tornado is "Do not try to outrun it." Another two sets of storm-chasing meteorologists had lucky escapes on Friday night after their vehicles got too close to the multiple tornadoes that hit the Oklahoma City area. Their deaths may not seem surprising; storm chasing, as you might expect, has its risks. Thus the bigger the projectile you will make, the worse the fine. Tornadoes do neither. The tornado caught up with him and his crew and ended them. Making a law which makes it illegal to chase storms will make it practically impossible to get enough data to understand tornadoes. I won't be joining them on the roads. 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. Brandi Vanalphen, 30, was among the hundreds of drivers trapped on traffic-snarled roads as she attempted to flee the tornado system menacing the suburb of Norman. He skipped out on chasing the massive tornado that flattened Moore, Okla., because it was too dangerous. Regarding emotional tragedy and responding to the thing that caused the emotional strategy, no, you've got that wrong. Troopers requested a number of ambulances at I-40 near Yukon, west of Oklahoma City. I remember Pa wearing this Civil Defense helmet and he was chirping on this big ol' walky talky! Your argument that talking about a way to address a situation in which people lose their lives is inappropriate because the situation is an emotional tragedy is actually the misguided reaction. 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. Note the comments that 22% of the fatalities at Tuscalousa were head injuries and in general a majority of tornado fatalities where head injuries. The debris field created by Samaras' wrecked car, the report concludes, corroborates the footage, which shows the subvortex moving across the face of the larger tornado at about the time Samaras' headlights disappear. Tens of thousands were without power, and only eight minor injuries were reported. That is a real problem and has increased over time. All rights reserved. Were looking at extremes in the rare EF5 category. Laws are really challenging to enforce. - Toxicology results have revealed the cause of death of a well-known storm chaser. Any house would have been completely swept clean on the foundation. In many cases, a law is unenforceable at face value, but when something goes wrong it suddenly becomes part of the equation. I don't think the scientists who died in this storm would agree with you on that. How close is too close? I did not make the argument that storm chasers cause cars to fly through the air and hurt people (though that could happen) I made the argument that amateurs who are just out to see the tornado jam traffic this is not something I've discovered, it is something that professional storm chasers have claimed to be true. His website Twistex has been integral to understanding how tornadoes work and improving warning times for those living in Tornado Alley.