UPDATE: I have a “before” picture of the vehicle now, posted below.
UPDATE2: Perhaps storm chasing has reached a tipping point.
Respected Tornado Reseacher And Storm Chaser Among Dead In Oklahoma | FOX17online.com
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Family members and members of the storm chasing community are confirming that well-respected tornado researcher and storm chaser Tim Samaras is among the eleven confirmed victims of Friday’s tornado that ripped through El Reno, Oklahoma. Samaras was one of the most well-known and respected tornado researchers in the world and had made many appearances on television shows like the Discovery Channel series Storm Chasers and was a regular contributor to shows on National Geographic.
The day that should change tornado actions and storm chasing forever
Update 9:30 a.m., June 2: We now hear that “veteran storm chaser Tim Samaras; his son, Paul Samaras; and chase partner Carl Young, are among those killed by Friday’s EF-3 tornado in El Reno, OK.”
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In the midst of all the tragedy unfolding in Oklahoma, media and storm chasers have been swarming all over the tornado outbreak. I’ve seen this many times in my years in television news: when you are tasked with going live, sometimes common sense gets literally thrown to the wind.
The Weather Channel lost sight of reality today, trying to get close to get the best footage for live coverage, and paid the price. Fortunately, they weren’t killed. Just last year, the TWC ran this segment by TWC meteorologist Mike Bettes, where he asked:
Mike Bettes’s Open Mike Discussion “Storm Chasers, Have They Gone Too Far?”
And it seems, Mike Bettes doesn’t listen to his own advice. Watch:
From TWC’s report on the incident:
Meteorologist Mike Bettes was chasing the monster rain-wrapped tornado near El Reno, Okla. when he says the storm picked up the heavy chase SUV and threw it an estimated 200 yards.
“We were ahead of the storm. We stopped to broadcast and I saw a large violent wedge tornado,” Bettes said in a live phone interview after he established phone connection after the incident.
“What we were trying to do was just get away from it and get to the south side of it,” Bettes said. “But what ended up happening was all three of our vehicles that we chase with were all hit by it.”
Basically, he put his team so close, he couldn’t get away from it.
And, he should know better. From the videos I’ve seen, this appeared to be a multiple vortice tornado, with a central core surrounded by other vortices (typically 3 or 4). Sometimes these outer vortices are intermittent and invisible.
Trying to dodge multiple vortices in the middle of live TV is of course a recipe for disaster.
h/t to Firsthand Weather
UPDATE: Before the tornado caught it, all blinged out:
Image by Kevin Parrish of NBC News
[ Jim says:
June 2, 2013 at 7:17 am ]
Your story sounds like a similar experience to one I had two years ago here in Wichita, KS.
A lot of folks around here like to watch the clouds until the last minute, then run inside to the basement if it looks bad enough, or when the wall cloud passes and it starts to rain in earnest. I was standing in my driveway looking skyward listening to the tornado sirens, my wife was looking up from the front door of the house.There was some obvious inflow rotation almost directly over my head and some pretty hefty winds with a smattering of big raindrops, but didn’t appear to be particularly ominous. I yelled at her, “Hey, come look at these clouds, I’ll show you what rotation looks like.” She screamed, “Get in here you &%#~* idiot!!!!” Almost simultaniously, my favorite Greg Norman golf hat I was wearing flew almost straight up hundreds of feet in about one to two seconds it seemed, and then out of sight into the clouds. I ran inside.
That initial tornadic updraft touched down at the end of the hole 14 fairway behind my house and cut a path of minor damage for about two miles ESE.
I still miss the hat, can’t find another just like it, but the wife is still here.
Rats! simultanEously
Scott B says:
June 2, 2013 at 9:42 am
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All I know is what the weather guys say… I’ve heard them say several times over the years and during the powerful storms that the only way to survive is to get below ground or get out of the way. They specifically and repeatedly state that to shelter in a closet or bathroom won’t work.
I’ve seen storms in my town with nothing left of neighborhoods except for rubble piles, or entire blocks of no rubble, just bare slabs and the slab peeled up if the wind could catch a corner.
When someone tells me to forget running, that I can really survive hiding under the bed, I tend to discount what they say… you might be right, but I’m still here.
The truck you have shown was destroyed but all inside lived to tell the tale. A picture of the truck in which the three storm chasers died can be seen at http://www.NewsWatchCanada.ca . The death truck is much more seriously mangled. They were real scientists, engaged in meaurement and tracking and it’s a big loss. RIP.
Typically the roads are clear enough for storm chasers to reverse course and escape but the roads were clogged by people on Friday trying to escape, which is how both these veteran crews were hit hard. Many others died in their vehicles on Friday.
crosspatch says on June 1, 2013 at 10:32 am:
“I was watching coverage of this storm from local chasers on KFOR in OKC as it was developing. The reason why these chasers got caught in this storm is that it made a nearly 90 degree sudden turn. Now these storms do wobble somewhat and a little movement either side of the general path is expected but what this storm did was unusual. That is why it caught FIVE chase vehicles by surprise, not just the WxCh guys. The KFOR chasers are some of the most experienced at this on the planet and they are extremely familiar with the local Oklahoma region and the behavior of storms there. I was watching video of one of their chasers barreling down a dirt road IN REVERSE in their desperation to get away from this storm.”
I also saw discussion about the tornado doing a sudden 90 degree *left* turn.
What I saw in the video from the TWC vehicle getting caught: The tornado did somewhat of a sudden right turn. It was also shown as large and multivortex.
I would have reversed the southward course at least 1 minute before impact, maybe 2.
Even driving over highway shoulder or farmland if necessary to do so. At that point, the TWC team appeared to me to be on collision course with the left side of a large multivortex tornado. The winds have a high rate of being worse on the right side.
Also, I think Mike Bettes knows this, and how tornadoes sometimes take non-straight paths.
I would have turned back as soon as he got a little good video of the subvortices of the main tornado.
I’d add that there have been some number of tornadoes of lesser power over the years during which the local meteorologists advise people to take immediate shelter in closets, center of the house, etc. if no other shelter is available. They reserve the dire “below ground or gone” type warnings for the strongest twisters.
It was hard to figure out what to do during this storm due to wide- ranging reports of funnel location, strength, direction, multiple siren warnings, etc.
Dan et al. Though I’ve said it repeatedly on this thread, the fleeing masses had nothing to do with interfering with the chasers. The chasers got caught by a wild storm. It behaved more erraticly than they allowed for. Emergent phenomenon can do that. I have heard no reports of injury, at least not related to the storm, that affected the fleeing masses and the traffic congestion. The tornado missed the traffic south of town. West of town, near El Reno, that was different. The tornado wreaked havoc, fortunately for very few.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/02/us/midwest-weather/index.html?NewsWatchCanada.ca
In the text, Bettes speaks for himself, obviously shaken.
Tribute film to Tim Samaras.
I would never have gone into these regions that he did driving the truck he did. Still what he did was courageous and advanced the science of tornados, much as volcanologists (quietly) put them selves at risk to understand those monsters.
RIP Tim, you will be missed, even by those you didn’t know, but whose lives you still touched.
Thanks Carrick. The Discovery Channel show tonight on the Moore tornado two weeks ago mentioned the deaths of Tim, his son, and Carl at the end of the show, which was the first I had heard of it. Three great and fellow scientists were \taken from us on Friday. There work is a great loss. Perhaps these new guys who essentially drive tanks have the right idea.
Our death toll is up to 16 with the additional deaths due to the flooding. http://newsok.com/oklahoma-storms-death-toll-rises-to-at-least-16-some-still-missing-but-search-will-continue-until-we-find-everybody/article/3841107
The damage ratings have all been down-rated. The storm paths are less now than the preliminary indication. I realized that was going to happen when I found a good enough preliminary map to know we were very close to one of the paths, and there is just no damage on that path. We had straight line winds into the 80 mph range, and that is EF-0 range. The flood waters are definitely becoming the bigger story of this storm, despite the dramatic points made above.
Storm chasing surely is and will be risky, but why are people so reckless and go there with these pseudo ATVs? At least some structural enforcement of the car (inner cages etc) should be standard – and it should not be possible to get sucked out of the car.
Looking at the picture of the damaged car such an event should be much less harmful with a few logical precautions in place.
Update:
I just saw the real pic of the car.
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130602155446-storm-chasers-vehicle-horizontal-gallery.jpg
You just shouldn’t go there with of the shelve cars. They are useless toys.
crosspatch says:
June 1, 2013 at 10:56 pm
One important service that the chasers provide in the OKC area are to verify that there is actually a tornado on the ground and to get an idea of the severity. Radar might show rotation but that rotation might not be on the ground. There were several times yesterday when the radar showed very strong rotation aloft but the chasers reported no tornado on the ground.
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One other thing that can happen … radar shows rotation, and the tornado just starts to hit the ground but then mysteriously retreats. I had this happen a couple of years ago. The radar showed a tornado right over me. For just a moment, a sort of pressure wave hit, almost like an earthquake. But there was never a proper debris / dust cloud set up and visually there was a mere funnel cloud. The tornado warning was removed a couple minutes after it was enacted. Then nothing more.
Newbie (to ‘chasing’ I take it); take a look at what Reed Timmer ‘parties’ with (It’s not called the ‘Dominator’ for nothing!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRV_Dominator
Short intro:
The SRV Dominator is a vehicle used for storm chasing, as featured on the Discovery Channel series Storm Chasers. In 2013, Reed Timmer, designer and operator of all three Dominator vehicles joined KFOR-TV’s 4WARN Storm Team, all three vehicles collectively referred to by the station as “Dominator 4”.
The Dominator was modified from a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe that was used during the 2008 storm chasing season and debuted in the 2009 chase season.
The modifications included adding bulletproof sheet metal and transparent Lexan armor to protect against flying debris near tornadoes, and an external roll cage and NASCAR-style safety harnesses in case of a vehicle roll.
The SRV is not designed to intercept (due mainly to a lack of an anchoring system as employed on the TIV 2) but is able to get as close as humanly possible to tornados. In 2008, a tornado in Aurora, Nebraska unexpectedly strengthened right over the Dominator and blew out the driver’s window, when its exterior Lexan window failed to roll up. Designer Reed Timmer and one of his passengers suffered lacerations to the face from flying glass.
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The thread linked below may be of interest;
http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?29879-The-events-leading-up-to-the-traffic-Jam-in-SW-OKC-on-May-31st-2013&p=329905&viewfull=1#post329905
Read the whole thing; I linked to the most detailed account of one man’s experience above. The whole thing is here: The events leading up to the traffic Jam in SW OKC on May 31st 2013
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As some of you may already know, the El Reno Tornado that killed Tim, Paul and Carl has been upgraded today to an EF5 tornado and also was shockingly large at an estimated maximum size of 2.6 miles across with peak wind speeds measured at 296 mph by portable Doppler radar.
Apparently the main funnel, when it made its 120 degree turn to the North east suddenly grew from about a mile wide to approximately 2.6 miles wide as the whole wall cloud apparently descended to ground level and accelerated its forward motion from about 30-35 mph to 45 mph. It also was spinning off multiple secondary vortexes that would rapidly form then disappear in a very short span of time.
Note the width of 2.6 miles is at the EF0 65 mph wind speed lower limit of tornado winds, not the sort of 100+ mph winds the casual observer would suspect.
This from the perspective of a storm spotter, makes the death of Tim and crew much easier to understand. He was a very safety conscious storm spotter but the very reason for the existence of theTwistex team was to go in harms way and place instrument packages where they would get run over by the approaching storm. That means that every time they deployed their packages, they briefly were poking the bear with a sharp stick and then trying to back away before they got bit. It was a hazard he accepted willingly and with full understanding of the possible risks, because he knew that that was the ONLY way to get the ground level instrumental data the storm analysis people need to improve their understanding of these storm.
It is reported that other storm spotters have combed the area where he was when the storm over took him and have found items like cameras and cell phones and as was expected, (hoped) some of his tornado instrument packages which apparently were activated. If true he likely was not lost to some random error in judgement or road block and traffic jam but due to a unique and incredible storm far beyond the norm, and he died while trying to document and gather data on this incredible storm.
I really really hope they can recover the data from those packages and the images captured by them before they were over run. It would provide some positive outcome to the loss.
This has bugged me. For the record, there are “storm chasers” that are out there trying to help people by warning where the actual funnel is now and so give them warning. (Kind of like the guys who fly into hurricanes to gather data or these guys http://www.erh.noaa.gov/iln/research/ThunderstormProject/TSP.php.) If I said anything that could be taken as a put down on them, I apologize.
What I said was directed at the “Weather Paparazzi”.