Television cameras showed debris falling from the sky west of Oklahoma City and power transformers being knocked out by high winds across a wider area. 'For reasons that are not clear to me, more people took to the roads, more than we expected. 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. October 31st 2015, 7:11 PM PDT. Often scores, even hundreds of chasers would converge on the same cell by late afternoon. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman predicted a slight chance of severe weather in the Northeast on Sunday, mainly from the Washington, D.C., area to northern Maine. News casters were telling people in the direct line of the tornado do drive south. But then the tornado made a turn and headed straight for the south that people were being told to drive to. People who are paying for the storm chasing experience are expecting to do pretty much the same thing. A father-and-son team of storm chasers and their long-time partner were heard screaming 'we're going to die, we're going to die' on highway patrol radio moments before they were killed by one of the savage twisters they'd devoted their lives to following. Missouri and Illinois around St. Louis were also hit by 12 tornadoes, at least 100 people are injured and 'numerous homes' have been damaged. I can at least understand why news crews were in the vicinity, but they didn't really need to be there either. 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. Or, amateurs could get to a good viewing area well ahead of anticipated severe weather, and then stay put and off the road. Im not sure how many people actually got in their cars and drove south. We do know, however, that the highways in the area became jammed with cars, and the vicinity around the intersection of I35 and I40 was described as a parking lot. One thing we do know is that many people who drove south to get away from the tornado in fact drove directly into its path, created a traffic jam, and most of the deaths associated with this tornado were among those people in those cars. I decided to let the comments speak for themselves, because, after all, this post was written three or four days after the event, and the comments reflect more recently available information and analysis. 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? please note that I did not claim in my post what you claim I claimed. Old cells hang around as we age, doing damage to the body. Getting into a ditch can apparently also be fatal. In other words, it is now probably legal and appropriate for police or fire departments to close off roads or direct traffic or tell people not to drive in a particular area where there is currently a major fire, explosion, storm devastation, and so on. How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? Lighting up the sky: The storm chasers work was featured on National Geographic and the Discovery Channel as they tracked violent weather systems, 'Tim's research included creation of a special probe he would place in the path of a twister to measure data from inside the tornado; his pioneering work on lightning was featured in the August 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine. An image taken from video shows the vehicle that longtime storm chaser Tim Samaras, his son Paul and colleague Carl Young were killed when a powerful tornado hit near El Reno, Okla. on May 31. What do you think? Second, the point is still valid. You do raise many good points about how such a law would be implemented, and some I can thing of answers to, some not so easily. I think this tornado did some stuff we didn't expect. More than 210,000 customers lost electricity in the areas affected by the storm. If idiots who don't know what they're doing want to drive into a twister, let them. It is known to be BAD advice and they directly contributed to the deaths that occurred. It is unfortunate that when such behavior becomes a problem society sometimes needs to make a rule of some kind. 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. Or was it a rotating thunderstorm (a supercell) with small- to moderate-sized tornadoes swirling about one another? 528 people were killed by weather in 2012, of which about 200 were a result of high velocity air. Samaras, his son Paul, and colleague Carl Young died in late May in El Reno, Okla. while chasing an EF5 (winds above 200 miles per hour) tornado, which was later estimated to the be the widest . 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. The spot a few yards off Reuter Road where the body of Tim Samaras was found inside the crushed vehicle (his son. I hold a degree in atmospheric and oceanic sciences. Say you are sitting in your home and you know there is a tornado coming and you are watching TV and the following breathless reporting is happening. local news and culture, Brantley Hargrove The elder Samaras' body was still belted into their Chevrolet Cobalt, which was found on an unimproved county road parallel to Interstate 40. Not according to biology or history. They were essentially targets just waiting for a tornado to touch down,' Ms Randolph said. Take your time.'. 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. Along with his son, Paul, and storm chaser Carl Younghis longtime. 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. Dallas' independent source of "Tim was a courageous and brilliant scientist who fearlessly pursued tornadoes and lightning in the field in an effort to better understand these phenomena," the society said on its website. I was in Warr Acres, just next to Bethany in OKC on Fri. May 31. It's just news. We all see our own causes as noble don't we? Police urged motorists to leave the crosstown Interstate 40 and seek a safe place. A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. If you are worried about the roads being clogged during a tornado then don't drive or don't live in tornado alley. 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. I have lived in the Oklahoma City area for 37 years and have been professionally chasing storms for the last 18 years. The officers had to contend with hail and strong winds as they worked to help motorists. Police have a hard enough time now dealing with emergencies, the last thing they have time to do is stop to write tickets. Please be respectful of copyright. 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. 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. 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. Also, hurricanes tend to follow predictable paths and show up on sattelite. I agree, we only need laws if we need laws. Caught in the midst of the gigantic storm was a group of storm chasers who had nowhere to hide. 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,. During the United States tornado season, it seems that we experience repeated tornadoes and other severe storms in a given area over several days. She quickly regretted it. 'There was just no place to go. Interestingly motorcycle helmets are cheaper than football helmets due to liability reasons. 'I started seeing power flashes to the north, and I said "screw this." Your analogy regarding the burning building is wrong as well. Then we have police in the mix attempting somehow to cite the stupid? Del City has 21,000 people in it. As we wrote a while back, the National Weather Service downgraded the tornado from an EF-5 to an EF-3. Here's the before photo, of Mr. Samaras' car. This advice sounds reasonable, but it really isnt. 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. Friday night's victims included a mother and a baby sucked out of their car as the EF3 hit near El Reno. . But the main circulation was crawling with smaller tornadoes, some moving at speeds of 260 feet per second (177 mph), according to the report. 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. Bats and agaves make tequila possibleand theyre both at risk, This empress was the most dangerous woman in Rome. According to meteorologists about six to eight inches of rain fell in a 12 hour period between 7 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. Saturday. There's no wiggle room. On the other hand, if you calculate its width by how much debris was lofted into the air, we may be talking about a mile and a quarter to nearly two miles in width. The American Meteorological Society has released a preliminary version of its after-action report on the El Reno, Oklahoma, tornado, which killed noted storm chaser Tim Samaras, his son Paul and chase partner Carl Young. Oklahoma County sheriff's office has identified the victim as James Talbert, according to NewsOk. Tim Samaras, a native of Lakewood, Colo., holds the Guinness World Record for the greatest pressure drop ever measured inside a tornado. The people who drove away did find shelter after what sounded like a very fearful drive. As for the accuracy of the cause of death of the Twistex team, I report here what was said at the time. You can also shop using Amazon Smile and though you pay nothing more we get a tiny something. Published: 23:27 GMT, 3 June 2013 | Updated: 08:30 GMT, 4 June 2013. They didn't happen to be overrun by a killer tornado at the time. And, as I think I've said several time, Tim and his crew were professionals, making an important contribution. I've literally sat bumper to bumper with chasers on a five mile strech of road. 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. I've heard horror stories about the attempt to partially evacuate Houston in advance of Hurricane Ike. 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. Other professional meteorologists, from The Weather Channel, were injured. 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. The majority of schools are built from concrete blocks that are not reinforced. Personally it does anger me when you see chasers, pro or amateur, driving past people who may be potentially injured and most certainly in need just to keep getting the shot. Big fires are also pretty unpredictable and they can drop burning embers many kilometres away from the fire centre. See also: The Last Ride of Legendary Storm Chaser Tim Samaras). The one thing in your article I see that you failed to address is the number of chasers in the past that have been killed by the storm while chasing them. It is not like the Tornadoes have a rule book that if we follow we are safe. It needs to be taught in public schools, teachers also need to take these courses. I also think its called natural selection. In St. Charles County, at least 71 homes were heavily damaged and 100 had slight to moderate damage, county spokeswoman Colene McEntee said. Tens of thousands were without power, and only eight minor injuries were reported. Basically the idea here is that if you can avoid a direct hit to the head by the helmet taking the beating your more likley to survive. But what about big storms that dont drop tornadoes? That would stop several people right there. Trooper Randolph said roadways quickly became congested with the convergence of rush-hour traffic and fleeing residents. Photographed with a wide angle lens, the mile-wide tornado, is seen near El Reno, Jack-knifed: Traffic slowly moves around a semi tractor-trailer that was blown off the highway by the tornado on Oklahoma Interstate-40, Stranded: Vehicles trapped by flash flooding sit underneath on the road in Oklahoma City after severe thunderstorms brought tornadoes, high winds, heavy rain and hail to the area. 'It was chaos. independent local journalism in Dallas. 2) "But the hundreds, or even thousands of non-professional storm chasers are probably not contributing to the science of tornadoes and tornado safety." 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. The seasoned storm chaser had dedicated his life to extreme weather, following storms for a quarter of a century. 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. At 6:23 p.m. on May 31, 2013, Samaras, his 24-year-old son Paul (a photographer), and TWISTEX team member Carl Young (a meteorologist), 45, were killed by a violent wedge tornado [19] with winds of 295 mph (475 km/h) near the Regional Airport of El Reno, Oklahoma. 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. Hail and high winds were the chief threat, though a tornado could not be ruled out, forecasters said. 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. What was that point that I missed? Were 20 of those people storm chasers? 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. This report indicates he's more right than he could have known. There was no place to hide.. What if we could clean them out? Probably not. 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. This is not an especially enforceable regulation". An element. For example, it used to be hard to catch motorists running red lights in NYC. I have not suggested that storm chasing be illegal. Of the mother and baby who were tragically killed, Betsy Randolph said: 'We know that the storm picked them up and swept them away.' Storm chasers with cameras in their car transmitted video showing a number of funnels dropping from the supercell thunderstorm as it passed south of El Reno and toward downtown Oklahoma City. 'The trees were leaning literally to the ground. 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. I doubt that the new law would save lives. 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. The people could be driving for many unattributed reasons. Please make a tax-deductible donation if you value independent science communication, collaboration, participation, and open access. >>> I support this 100%. Watch: Local news reported an estimated 1,200 people were at the airport. Tim Samaras was a pioneer and great man," he wrote. Actually there were other comments that could even make an above ground room safer. But what I would really like to ask is this. 'Tim was not a cowboy, he was as cautious as possible about his approach to studying these dangerous storms.'. But, since we (we here discussing this) don't really know the laws and how they work regarding emergency response, traffic, etc. All rights reserved. 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. 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. 'If you live in downtown Oklahoma City, please go below ground. The Oklahoma City metro district has about 1.3 million people. 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. Look at that video. Looking at where he was, I don't think evacuation traffic would have had much of an impact, if any. Though the state's transportation authorities strongly advised citizens not to drive, some interstate highways in Oklahoma were jammed with stalled traffic, as heavy rains drenched roadways and flooded low-lying areas. 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. Excluding the one thrill seeker and the three professionals that were killed in this event there has not been another incident. But the hundreds, or even thousands of non-professional storm chasers are probably not contributing to the science of tornadoes and tornado safety. Eco-friendly burial alternatives, explained. Of those areas mentioned in this quote, Downtown OK city has about 7,600 people living in it. But, I suspect I know why you proposed that idea. #1. the storms path was extremely erratic and it made a sudden turn that surprised even veteran forecasters. It made all the difference that it was out in the country.'. A small tornado in Kansas, photographed during Tim Samaras's lightning expedition in August 2009. Now that would be an effective law. 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. Tim was a couple of miles south of interstate. He also starred in the Discovery Channel series Storm Chasers. The . The fact of the matter is, you just never know where they're going to hit. The tragic circumstances that caused the deaths of Tim and Paul Samaras and Carl Young has been well documented. I am thinking these scientists were blaming the storm track far more than the traffic. Yes, lets get the facts straight, which the comments below and the information added here help do. This is a reasonably important job that concerns many aspects of the environment. - May 31, 2013 (his death) Other works book: "Tornado Hunter: Getting Inside the Most Violent Storms on Earth". Emergency officials reported that numerous injuries occurred in the area along I-40, and said the storm's victims were mostly in cars. 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. 'I think we are still a little shaken by what happened in Moore. But telling everyone to leave their homes and drive is not advised, if that is actually what the newscaster did. 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. Discovery says it has been updated with 'Stormchasers' footage of the researchers. 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. They look up that license plate in the DMV database and conveniently send the summons to you in the mail. 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. Can we bring a species back from the brink? They sheltered at St Anthony's Hospital which was only about 1/4 mile from where the tornado touched down. 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. The cause of his death remains unclear at this time, but several of his friends shared the sad news on social media, commemorating the. Yes, they died, but there is ZERO evidence this law, if passed, would have prevented even one of them. Once it's used up and gone, it's .. gone. I doubt it. They all unfortunately passed away but doing what they LOVED. Debris was tangled in the median's crossover barriers, including huge pieces of sheet metal, tree limbs, metal pipes, a giant oil drum and a stretch of chain-link fence. And what of its width? The weather service initially rated the Friday tornado that hit El Reno as an EF3. 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). 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. In the future I will be blogging at Greg Laden's blog, located at its original home at gregladen.com. Also, their data helps us to better understand the dynamics of what happens in tornadoes which can help make safer structures. Samaras holds the Guinness World Record for the largest measured pressure drop inside a tornado. 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. 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 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. If you watch the Discovery Channels Storm Chasers show, you will notice that as the seasons progress the professional storm chasers encounter more and more traffic as they try to move to the predicted path of oncoming tornadoes to drop data collecting probes or carry out direct intercepts (where the specially modified vehicles equipped with data collection devices are directly hit with a tornado). So, that apparent fact was part of the underpinning of the original post (below). 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. In fact, it isn't just the mathematical curiosity known as the Mandelbrot set that's full of irregularities and ever, How three storm chasers died, and what to do about it, http://news.yahoo.com/tornado-coming-grab-helmet-084500057.html, http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTornadoChaser, http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/06/19/pilger_nebraska_torn, The Lab Leak Theory Was Dismissed As Trump Xenophobia - Now Deniers Say It Was Not Accepted Because of Trump Xenophobia, DAN5/P1: Homo Erectus Early Cranial Capacity Was More Like Australopiths Such As 'Lucy', DART Made A Big Difference In Ability To Accurately Calculate Asteroid Deflections, The Subsidies Paradox: Affordable Food Versus The Environment, Degrowth communism as asolution for climate change, On that chilling law suit against the environmental groups, Watch Jeff Merkley Wipe Floor With Trump's William Wehrum, "Transparency" should not equal a license to harass scientists. Among the injured was a meteorologist from The Weather Channel. 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.
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