Sad Farewell to One of my Heroes

Ever since I was a little kid I’ve been fascinated by tornadoes.  Back in the seventies there wasn’t a lot of information about them.  There were collections of spine chilling anecdotes and some dry statistical facts.  There was Snowden Flora’s classic book Tornadoes of the United States.  I must have checked that thing out of the library a dozen times.  I did three science fair projects on tornadoes.  Actually it was the same project each time, I just tarted it up a little every year and turned in the retreaded version.  My teachers were very long-suffering.

If I could have shot myself forward in time to today’s wealth of information, celebrity storm chasers, television programs, and Internet videos, I would have just died from happiness.  I have a secret fantasy of meeting one of my tornado chasing heroes while driving across the country.

Among the cast of brave and colorful characters who chase and research tornadoes and try to figure out what makes them happen, there was a steady, sober, absolutely science-driven man.  That man was Tim Samaras.  I’ve followed Tim’s work for years, admired him and appreciated his real contributions to the growing knowledge about these fascinating and deadly storms.  It was with shock and great sadness that I read the news this morning of Tim’s death in the El Reno tornado, along with his son Paul and team member Carl Young.  Many people who knew Tim personally have said that nobody was more committed to staying safe while out in the field than Tim.  He was not a yahoo, he was a careful, smart scientist.  That makes his death all the more shocking and heartbreaking.  Tim was one of my heroes.

Maybe it will be a small comfort to the families that Tim, Paul and Carl died doing what they loved, that they gave their lives in service to real science that ultimately will be part of a body of knowledge that will save other lives.  They will be missed, by those who knew and worked with them, and by those of us who never met them but were fascinated by their work and got great enjoyment out of watching them do it.