These skeletons may have the answer, Scientists are making advancements in birth controlfor men, Blood cleaning? Friday night's victims included a mother and a baby sucked out of their car as the EF3 hit near El Reno. You are absolutely right, that this tornado was a particularly monstrous one. Good day to you sir. The program, 'Mile Wide Tornado: Stormchasers Tribute,' will feature scenes of Tim Samaras, his son Paul and Mr Young. October 1, 2013 They were just miles from the city of Moore, which was devastated by a massive tornado that killed 24 people on May 20. ScienceBlogs is where scientists communicate directly with the public. 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. A two-and-a-half mile wide tornado would not look like a tornado to a lot of people, Smith said. Even with interstate highways out of town in six different directions, you wouldn't be able to evacuate all those people in a few hours. (MORE: Reaction from Dr. Jeff Masters of Weather Underground). Scientists have to accept that. - Toxicology results have revealed the cause of death of a well-known storm chaser. How a zoo break-in changed the life of an owl called Flaco, Naked mole rats are fertile until they die, study finds. 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. It needs to be taught FREE for the public as well. The Weather Channel issued the following statement: It was with great sadness that The Weather Channel learned of the passing of Tim and Paul Samaras and Carl Young as a result of the El Reno Tornado. The Storm Prediction Center issued a statementSunday, saying it was terribly saddened by Tim Samaras' death. They were probably thinking, somebody should do something about this situation.". I know this from my own children being in Norman public schools. The other, which according to professional storm chasers is a problem, is the increased number of people crowding roads (including but by no means limited to) highways in or near the paths of storms. In Fridays storm, many of the deaths were caused by heavy flash flooding following the storms. But, since we (we here discussing this) don't really know the laws and how they work regarding emergency response, traffic, etc. 'They had no place to go, and that's always a bad thing. I doubt that it would even have a measurable positive effect. The news comes as the death toll from Friday's tornadoes and storms in Oklahoma has risen to 18 people, including six children and 12 adults, the Oklahoma chief medical examiner said on Monday. [sic] I look at it that he is in the 'big tornado in the sky'. Tim was a couple of miles south of interstate. Or, amateurs could get to a good viewing area well ahead of anticipated severe weather, and then stay put and off the road. One of Earth's loneliest volcanoes holds an extraordinary secret. Pete, Born: I think this is a difficult question. Don't create a law just to feel better because people died. It airs at 10 p.m. EDT Wednesday. He knew what to look for. This one didn't. It truly is sad that we lost my great brother Tim and his great son, Paul. Of those who did I dont know how many of them were primed to use drive away as a strategy by earlier chatter in major media outlets, and elsewhere such as twitter and other social media. Like wadded up,' he told the Washington Post. 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. 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. This is nothing new, and this really has nothing to do with someone on television telling them to do so. Most new laws seem to be rehashes of existing laws that can be adapted. That's why safety experts say you need a plan. Waiting: Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport was evacuated. When she emerged from the freezer her car windshield had been shattered by the hail. Can we bring a species back from the brink?, Video Story, Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Storm chasing is definitely in the "Don't try this at home, kids!" The bodies of another motorist and the Discovery Channel storm chasers, Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and Carl Young, were found in a three-mile diagonal path near N.W. They eventually revised this policy I'm assuming based on what has happened to folks in their stores during a bad storm. Like diving into the bath tub with a mattress on top for cover. I would say to such folks the same thing a fire chief would say to people who are not trained, qualified, or equipped to study burning office buildings but feel that somehow being close to one would help them provide insights about fire safety: "Move along, you're not helping but just getting in the way here. You can also shop using Amazon Smile and though you pay nothing more we get a tiny something. Three veteran storm chasers were among the 10 people killed following Friday's EF3 tornado in El Reno, Okla. I can at least understand why news crews were in the vicinity, but they didn't really need to be there either. 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. More cars on the roads also meant more trouble for Highway Patrol officers responding to automobile accidents during the storm, Randolph said. "We still don't know why some thunderstorms create tornadoes while others don't," he told National Geographic last month. And we're wasting it on stupid, silly things like party balloons. This is a free country, or at least we want it to be a free country, and being able to freely travel on public thoroughfares is part of that. Vented to the atmosphere, it eventually makes its way to the exosphere and is light enough to escape to space. Law enforcement in a tornado emergency already has immense priorities safeguarding the areas affected, treating the injured, rescues, ascertaining what equipment is needed, etc who would be pulled off those duties to chase down minor traffic violators? It is unfortunate that when such behavior becomes a problem society sometimes needs to make a rule of some kind. They said to stay at work if you had better shelter there. I'm one state north from tornado alley, and I can't imagine anyone from my state saying that it's okay to drive during a tornado alert. His video consisted of really high quality camera work of weather and the focus wasn't on him. 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. Though the tornado alert expired, the powerful rain continued to hit the area and floodwaters were collecting in the streets. He did not say "don't get in your car" and he did not say "a car is a bad place to be, and if you find yourself in a car do this and that" which is what he should have said. 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. Smith said the storms 2.6-mile path besting a record set in 2004 in Hallam, Neb. The comments below have not been moderated. 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. In fact, one could argue that a new law is not needed and this power is already available to police and emergency response agencies. 'If you live in downtown Oklahoma City, please go below ground. The men worked as a team and Tim Samaras had received 18 grants from the National Geographic Society for work in the field. 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. Police have a hard enough time now dealing with emergencies, the last thing they have time to do is stop to write tickets. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Why wetlands are so critical for life on Earth, Rest in compost? Either prospect is equally remarkable. 1:50PM. Thus the bigger the projectile you will make, the worse the fine. One thing that makes tornadoes so dangerous is the speed at which they hit. Looking at where he was, I don't think evacuation traffic would have had much of an impact, if any. Storm chasers should absolutely pull off the road and yield to emergency vehicles as well as people trying to escape. National Geographic explorer and storm chaser Tim Samaras devoted his life to unlocking the mysteries of extreme weather. 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? 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. There is no certainty. Terry Garcia, executive vice president of the National Geographic Society, said: 'We were shocked and deeply saddened by the news that longtime National Geographic grantee Tim Samaras was killed in a tornado in Oklahoma on Friday, along with Tim's son Paul and their colleague Carl Young. In Canadian County, Okla., where the men died, Undersheriff Chris West noted the three were hoping to help understand violent storms. None of those fancy schemes work. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. 'They were screaming, "We're going to die, we're going to die,"' she recalled to USA Today. He knew where not to be and in this case the tornado took a clear turn toward them," he said. The latter group tend to get in the way. Discovery says it has been updated with 'Stormchasers' footage of the researchers. 'That's a very unwise thing to do because it's the absolute worst place you can be during a tornado.'. Was the chaser causing harm? It was NOT caused by a traffic jam. They were probably thinking, "somebody should do something about this situation.". local news and culture, Brantley Hargrove The newscaster's advice was appalling. 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. Samaras' car was perhaps too slow and too light, and the road was not amenable to fast driving. I also agree that people should not be allowed to drive through tornadoes for the safety of others, however if people were not allowed to escape I believe that more shelters should be provided for individuals in the path of the storm. A total of five tornadoes struck the Oklahoma City metro area, the National Weather Service said. But I'll just say that I think there are less extreme solutions than putting a ban on all amateur storm chasing. 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,. Samaras submitted this footage to National Geographic in the weeks leading up to his death,. Two other victims were found in a car in Union City, another was found on a road in El Reno. BTW, here is Bart's Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTornadoChaser. The thing is, this tornado was heading roughly from west to east into a highly populated area. :) 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". Storm chasing by amateurs needs to be outlawed. Were all the people blocking the road amateur chasers? Thats just my speculation, Smith said. ', Danger: A series of violent storms and tornadoes have killed nine people as they swept through Oklahoma City and its suburbs on Friday, Damage: People survey the damage at the Canadian Valley Technology Center's El Reno Campus after it was hit by a powerful tornado on Friday, Crash: An airplane from the Aviation Technology department lies upside down on the lawn at Canadian Valley Technology Center in El Reno. One more thing: at the point the tornado lifted, it was heading more or less directly eastward along I-40 (again, Jeff Masters is my source here). In Missouri three people died in three counties after rivers rose to dangerous levels, and in Arkansas a sheriff was killed by flooding in Scott County on Friday. It's even worse if you are an amateur tornado chasing on your own--at least the tour groups have an experienced person to warn them that the tornado is coming straight at them and they need to hit the dirt NOW! Christopher, I've heard from their own lips complaints by professional storm chasers about the looky-lous that clog up the roads, so probably both. 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 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. 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. He set a world record in 2003 which still stands today when he recorded an 100 millibar pressure drop from an F-4 tornado. I started driving on the shoulder. Other professional meteorologists, from The Weather Channel, were injured. Laws are really challenging to enforce. 'There is very low visibility with the heavy rain so we're having trouble getting around. Three veteran storm chasers were among the 10 people killed, Dallas Area Storms Cause Power Transformer To Explode. 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. Education may help, but first we need to educate Meteorologists in the media, the brilliant minds out there need to come up with a set of definitive standards on what to do and what not to do and hold the TV weather accountable, develop an educational program for the public, but most of all give people a place to go, public shelters or something for safety, if people have a shelter they more than likely wont get in their car in the first place. ", In reply to by Danny Caputi (not verified). 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. People were going southbound in the northbound lanes. 'The trees were leaning literally to the ground. Interestingly motorcycle helmets are cheaper than football helmets due to liability reasons. 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're scrambling around,' said Lara O'Leary, a spokeswoman for the local ambulance agency. Carl Young, a California native, joined Samaras in the field in 2003. 'Tim was not a cowboy, he was as cautious as possible about his approach to studying these dangerous storms.'. 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. "We're trying to collect as many observations as possible, both from outside and from the inside. Or was it a rotating thunderstorm (a supercell) with small- to moderate-sized tornadoes swirling about one another? And now Continuing on Helmets here is a link to a story on yahoo:http://news.yahoo.com/tornado-coming-grab-helmet-084500057.html. 2) "But the hundreds, or even thousands of non-professional storm chasers are probably not contributing to the science of tornadoes and tornado safety." He almost certainly didn't know that the rain-shrouded vortex was hooking toward him, to the northeast, and that he had entered its circulation. 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. Bolstering your argument by supposing the dead agree with you indicates how weak your initial argument is. The tornado was unpredictable. With all due respect, the citizens of tornado alley, especially Oklahoma, need to better educate themselves on severe weather. Actually there were other comments that could even make an above ground room safer. Which travel companies promote harmful wildlife activities? Let's create MORE laws to regulate something we really do not know if it is a problem. There was just no place to go. In his writeup of this event, meteorologist Paul Douglas made this point: Every time I went down to Oklahoma [with storm chasers] I was struck by the number of people tagging along. A new book chronicles his harrowing last days Maya Wei-Haas April 4, 2018 The tornado that touched down near El. The Life and Death of Legendary Storm Chaser Tim Samaras Books The Man Who Caught the Storm Tim Samaras was a legendary storm chaser whose work informed what we know about tornadoes. Making a law which makes it illegal to chase storms will make it practically impossible to get enough data to understand tornadoes. 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. Will Rogers World Airport was evacuated as Oklahoma City braced for the tornado, that was moving at 40mph. There was no place to hide.'. That is the speed at which they rotated around the tornado, not their recorded windspeed. Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph heard the panicked voices of the crew over her patrol radio right before the storm turned into their car. Trooper Randolph said roadways quickly became congested with the convergence of rush-hour traffic and fleeing residents. Amateur chasers don't want there to be strong evidence that what they do endangers themselves or others, so they want chaser-enhanced traffic jams to be taken out of the picture. He was found hanging in his Wichita, Kansas home. They never follow the same track. A finite resource. We all see our own causes as noble don't we? Several parents in the group I was with decided to drive south, away from the storm. 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. Take note at 3:09 - that's the edge of the tornado visible in the right side of the frame as it grows to nearly 2.6 miles across - the largest ever recorded. Officials described parts of Interstates 35 and 40 near Oklahoma City as 'a parking lot.'. When the storm passed between El Reno and Yukon, it barreled right down Interstate 40 for more than two miles, ripping billboards down to twisted metal frames. We were fine. #2. the storm went from a mile wide wedge to a 2.6 mile record breaking monster in an extremely rapid time, usually people 1 mile away from the storm would be safe or even 2 miles away but in this case it dropped on people 2 miles away, more so i don't believe it was a traffic jam as opposed to the rapid size increase and the sudden change in course. They sheltered at St Anthony's Hospital which was only about 1/4 mile from where the tornado touched down. This is an enormous loss for his family, his wide circle of friends and colleagues and National Geographic.'. Sean, I agree on all points. 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. Privacy statement. Its very scary I dont think a normal person can fathom just how scary. Not sure what happened with Tim. Biography - A Short Wiki Tim Samaras, his son Paul and colleague Carl Young died Friday night when an EF3 tornado with winds up to 165 mph turned on them near El Reno, Okla. After years of sharing dramatic videos with television viewers and weather researchers, they died chasing a storm that killed 13 in Oklahoma City and its suburbs. Here's the before photo, of Mr. Samaras' car. Reed Timmer and Sean Casey and their crews modified vehicles that successfully survived being in powerful tornados (for Mythbusters fans, you may have seen these two teams vehicles go head to head with a jet engine to see how they would survive tornado strength winds on the episode Storm Chasing Myths). Samaras was killed along with his son Paul and storm chaser Carl Young in Friday's tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma. I agree, we only need laws if we need laws. That would stop several people right there. From the Texas border to near Joplin, Mo., residents were told to keep an eye to the sky and an ear out for sirens. Joel Taylor starred . I was in Warr Acres, just next to Bethany in OKC on Fri. May 31. Here is all you want to know, and more! Would one less car have been on that particular road had your proposed law been in place? Excluding the one thrill seeker and the three professionals that were killed in this event there has not been another incident. A Carrollton High School Claims Employee Gave Student Prescription Drugs, Rep. Nate Schatzline, Under Fire for 'Drag' Video, Accused of 'Doxxing' Keller ISD Mom, Another Carrollton Fentanyl Arrest and an On-Campus Overdose at R.L. Sheriff Cody Carpenter and a wildlife officer had been checking on houses that were in danger of being flooded. Even if we could predict hours in advance that the storms would hit a particular county (and as you correctly point out, this is not true--there may be several distinct tornadoes in a single outbreak, so it's quite possible that Oklahoma City and Enid could both be hit the same day), this would not help in a major metro area like Oklahoma City. One simple idea was to have either a hard hat or some sort of hard shell helmet to wear.
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