Tim Samaras, 30+ year storm researcher, son, and chase partner killed by tornado in El Reno, OK

[Stinky The Clown]

http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-central/tim-samaras-dead-oklahoma-tornado-kills-storm-chaser-son-paul-samaras-and-crew-member-carl-young

This guy was no amateur, very careful, scientifically engaged, and has been featured in various storm chase shows. The three are believed to be the first deaths among experienced, professional storm chasers.

Three storm chasers have died following Friday's EF3 tornado in El Reno, Okla. 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.

Tim Samaras, a native of Lakewood, Colo., holds the Guinness World Record for the greatest pressure drop ever measured inside a tornado. He designed, built, and deployed instrument probes to measure atmospheric variables such as pressure and wind in the path of tornadoes.

He deployed one of these in the path of an F4 tornado that destroyed the small town of Manchester, S.D., on June 24, 2003. This probe registered a world-record 100-millibar drop in pressure inside the twister.

Samaras, a tornado scientist for over 25 years, founded and ran a scientific field research program dubbed TWISTEX (Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in Tornadoes EXperiment). He also starred in the Discovery Channel series Storm Chasers.

[AverageJoe90]

1. Oh man. This must have been a HUGE loss for the weather enthusiasts' community, no doubt.

Rest in peace, Tim.....

[coldmountain]

2. They need to quit doing this with humans and use Google remote vehicles

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Some still requires a human touch