Posted on 06/02/2013 3:23:15 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AP_US_SEVERE_WEATHER_STORM_CHASERS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-06-02-14-10-10
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Common sense and weather people are mutually exclusive. How many of them stand out in hurricanes, tornados, blizzards, etc.? And this isn’t only on Fox News.
As a meteorologist...my head has been about to explode reading some of these threads. There is a VERY misguided notion that these guys were thrill-seekers. THEY WERE NOT (as you obviously know).
They put their lives at risk placing probes in the paths of tornadoes in order to collect data so that they and other researchers could better understand these killers in the hopes of one day being able to provide ample warning so that NO ONE has to die. AND SOMEBODY HAS TO DO IT. If they didn't do it...then we are missing key meteorological data about the lower 10 meters of the tornado which cannot be captured in any other way. I do not expect most on here to understand that...thus the ignorant comments.
This ignorance...which Free Republic can demonstrate on a GRAND scale at times...can be very frustrating.
I also do not expect that the "intelligensia" here on FR will "get" that Tim's research has and will undoubtedly save lives...but there are no doubts it has and will.
I couldn’t disagree more completely with both of your sentiments. These aren’t rubes like me out with a cell phone camera. They were professionals, and some of what they were doing was very good work.
But it is dangerous. No doubt about it. Mountain climbers are doing it for themselves. These guys may have been doing it for much the same reason, but it yielded more than a picture on a mountaintop.
Back in the 70’s and 80’s I was a storm chaser for Channel 9 in Oklahoma City. I was younger and maybe thought I was bullet proof, But I had one thing going for me. I had worked in the oilfield for many years and knew the back roads like the back of my hand and could manage the find routes that would keep me out of the path of the storm and at a safe distance. I spent little time on the main highways with all the traffic and was mostly on the section line roads.
Let be the first to repeat what you just stated with a qualifier; This ignorance...which some on Free Republic can demonstrate on a GRAND scale at times...can be very frustrating.
Most people on TV are not "weather people" (meteorologist)...they are broadcasters who do weather. They have a broadcast degree with a few hours of weather class in college.
Tim was a researcher. He gathered data by placing probes in the path of tornadoes so meteorologists can better predict their formation and tracks.
Just like Alan Shepard and John Glenn put theirs lives at risk to understand space, Samaras put his at risk to understand tornadoes. And just like Grissom, Chaffee and White...Challenger and Columbia...Samaras and his team lost their lives doing their passion but also doing research.
Nice qualifier...and very accurate. The insanity that erupts always has sanity around. If you can see it through the people who think they are comedians and the grumps :-)
NO ONE?? Good luck with that. Seriously.
Though as I pointed out on the previous thread, people go a bit far in the OTHER direction attributing the saving of thousands of lives to chasing, either through helping warnings or advancement of scientific research. The Samaras family and Karl Young were one of a tiny handful of chasers actually doing legitimate science.
Excellent comparison. As I mentioned in another post...they were like astronauts in a sense. They loved what they did...but it was dangerous and it was beneficial to humanity. Glenn and Shepard strapped on the rocket for the ride...but also to find out what space was like. Samaras was there for the tornado...but also to figure out what made it tick.
Dear friends, for the sanity of all of us, mind your spelling. Yikes.
The section line roads were something I got familiar with when I lived in Western Kansas. With very few exceptions there would be a dirt road every mile both E/W and N/S.
Having grown up in NW Florida that was a new experience. I loved the area despite the fact that most people did not. I did get tired of the constant wind tho. People would often say there was nothing between you and the North Pole but a barb wire fence.
‘i know, but still it must be exciting...’
Yes, exciting much in the same way as being locked in a lions’ cage at meal time.
Was driving my car when a storm popped up. A tornado passed within a mile of me. The car I was driving gave a very good imitation of preparing for flight.
Don’t ever want to do that again.
Yup.... that's the issue.
No, it wasn't the same people who died. The chasers who died were Tim Sedaris, his son, Paul and Carl Young, a part of their crew, Team Twistex. We've been watching Tim for years on the Stormchasers TV series, and he has never been one of the 'cowboys' who tried to get in the middle of a storm. His crew tried to get in front of the tornadoes to put probes in their paths, in order to get as much information about the structure of the storms as possible. He was in it for the science.
The guys who were reporting for Fox weren't necessarily foolhardy, either. I think this storm was just so unpredictable, there was no way to get away from it.
But not as bad as Geraldo when he was excitedly running around in gunfire, grabbing a gurney to act like he was helping.
Ours looked very similar to that. I was surprised at how spikey they were. We took pictures of them on a ruler.... every bit of 3 inches.... and sent it to the weather service, since we are also storm spotters.
Unmarked ice cream wagon?
There are some reports by other chasers that a key road to the South (Rt. 81) was closed by police at the time they were trying to escape this tornado to the south.
I have no idea precisely where Samaras was or whether this contributed to his death.
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