Storm Chaser catches one, gets killed

[the G-man]

Star of Discovery's 'Storm Chasers' show among dead in Oklahoma tornado: Tim Samaras, 55, died with his son Paul, 24, and friend Carl Young, 45, in Canadian County chasing down a tornado that wreaked havoc along Interstate 40.

Tough break. On the other hand, people who do dangerous jobs are bound to be killed doing them sometimes. Usually we don't hear about them because they don't have reality shows.

 

[bigdaddy]

The show ended two years ago. He was a scientist studying his science to try to understand storms to save lives. Sadly he died doing this.

 

[the G-man]

Yes, but point in bringing up the now-cancelled show was that it was the main reason this made the news. It, and my comment about him having a dangerous job, wasn't an attack on his work or the show.

 

[bigdaddy]

It was probably my favorite reality show because it shows actual reality and how dangerous it is.

 

[publiusr]

Frankly I would have thought that it would be Reed Timmer who bought it--but his Dominator recently withstood an EF-4 if I am not mistaken. Tim was always responsible. Out in the plains there isn't a lot of debris to contend with, so a simple roll cage may have made all the difference, at least with the weather channel vehicle that also got rolled (less badly) by the el Reno event.

This is a photo of Tim Samaras' chase vehicle, with the very engine block wrenched free
https://twitter.com/edlavaCNN/status/341260079913369601/photo/1

Multi vortex tornadoes with sub-vortices very widly spaced can cause confusion, in that--if you focus too much on one vortex, it gives you a false sense of direction as to the whole storm. You try to look at the cloud base above, and try to ignore the movement of the individual vortices underneath.

There has been a lot of talk about the ethics of chasing over at stormtrack.org, where mainstream chasers go. It was a 'zine back in the 1990s, and I subscribed to it back when Tim Marshall was at the helm before it went internet. http://www.stormtrack.org/

Some other links on Tornadoes
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=20351
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=20314
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...y-killed-sucked-car.html?ICO=most_read_module
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=31979.0
http://abcnews.go.com/US/storm-chasers-tim-samaras-paul-samaras-carl-young/story?id=19308572
http://blogs.agu.org/wildwildscienc...the-moore-tornado-from-the-storm-cellar-door/
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2423
http://www.krqe.com/dpps/features/must_see_video/oklahoma-tornado-flips-over-semitruck-nd13_6211973
http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-central/tornadoes-twist-last-week-may-20130530
http://www.weather.com/video/life-given-to-tornado-research-37114

More storms may be on the way
http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-central/main

Misc:
http://www.weather.com/video/a-thousand-mile-wide-tornado-35996
http://www.weather.com/video/amazing-dust-devil-video-33584
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyjr3KgVJ04
http://gizmodo.com/5938137/this-hug...rdest-meteorological-phenomenon-ive-ever-seen
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8358294/Dust-devils-blow-in-as-big-dry-continues

The odd Jarrell event
http://homepages.vvm.com/~curtis/Jarrell/Jarrell.htm


Now I think what many chasers want to see is a clean condensation funnel. The best way to do that is to get one of those submersible sea-breacher jet skis in the shape of a dolphin--to dive under a funnel wall of a waterspout, then pop up into the eye and film straight up.

No worries with muddy roads that go in the wrong direction--no debris--and no getting in the way of emergency services.

Tim will be missed. Unlike yahoo chasers, he did work on real science with instrumentation
http://www.alabamawx.com/?p=23362 http://thunderchase.com/