After researching and chasing tornadoes across the plains throughout his life, Timothy M. Samaras, one of world's well-known storm chasers, died Friday during Oklahoma's El Reno tornado, along with his 24-year-old son, Paul, and fellow storm chaser Carl Young.
Samara, 55, began studying tornadoes after watching the movie 'The Wizard of Oz' in his childhood.. For the past 30 years, he and son Paul travelled through Tornado Alley, which is considered to have the highest frequency of tornadoes in the world and placed weather instruments (probes) in a twister's path to measure data from inside the cyclone to better predict them in future. Paul and Young captured the cyclones on camera.
"Data from the probes helps us understand tornado dynamics and how they form," Samara said. "With that piece of the puzzle we can make more precise forecasts and ultimately give people earlier warnings."
Samaras founded a field research team called Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in Tornadoes Experiment (TWISTEX) to better understand tornadoes. The project was majorly funded by National Geographic which conferred 18 grants to him for his field work.
A week before his death, Samaras submitted this footage to National Geographic as part of his last storm-research expedition.
On May 20, National Geographic explorer and storm researcher, Samaras captured this video of a tornado forming in south-central Kansas.
Here, Samaras captures giant hailstones in the Tornado Alley.
"Tim was a courageous and brilliant scientist who fearlessly pursued tornadoes and lightning in the field in an effort to better understand these phenomena," said Society Executive Vice President Terry Garcia in a statement on Sunday. "Though we sometimes take it for granted, Tim's death is a stark reminder of the risks encountered regularly by the men and women who work for us."
