Don't Go Chasing Wind Horrors

Don't Go Chasing Wind Horrors

And the latest in the series of Darwin award nominations just entered the books.  Like a cat chasing its own tail, these Storm chasers eventually cought their storm.

Three veteran storm chasers were among the 10 people killed when a violent tornado barreled into the Oklahoma City metro area.

Jim Samaras told The Associated Press on Sunday that his brother Tim Samaras, 54, of Bennett, Colo., was killed Friday. Tim Samaras’ son, 24-year-old Paul Samaras, also of Bennett; and another chaser, Carl Young, also died.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it believed the deaths were the first time scientific researchers were killed while chasing tornadoes. The Samaras’ and Young were pursuing an EF3 tornado as it bore down on a metropolitan area of more than 1 million people.

“He looked at tornadoes not for the spotlight of TV but for the scientific aspect. At the end of the day, he wanted to save lives and he gave the ultimate sacrifice for that,” Jim Samaras said.
 
Tim Samaras had appeared on the Discovery Channel’s “Storm Chasers” show until last year and also contributed to the National Geographic Society.

The Storm Prediction Center said scientific storm chasing is performed as safely as possible, with trained researchers using appropriate technology. It encouraged all, including the media and amateurs, to chase safely to avoid a repeat of Friday’s deaths.

Hmmm, who would have thought that driving a homemade Mad Max outfitted tank into a tornado could be a bad idea? I think the whole notion of this line of career is beyond stupid and in itself dangerous to no end. While I'm sure there's some scientific gain to be made by putting your instruments close to the action, it should go without saying that you need to be smart about this and having a show and all that, despite what they are saying about his motivations, seems like his foolishness got the better of him and cost him his life.

Goes without saying that he flew too close to the sun and was burned by it.

Though I wonder if their deaths were caught on camera. You know, for science - to see if he did land in the wonderful land of oz or if he just ended up in that awful movie with James Franco. I speak of the Oz one, just in case saying Awful and James Franco is to vague.