Supercell: Historical micro-fiction - The life and death of a storm chaser
Image credit: Pixabay
Supercell
Doug listened to the police radio, tracking the storm chasers. The noise was deafening.
The storm was enormous, and fast. Tim’s crew should get out of there. Now.
On the radar, the storm shifted south. He heard Tim shouting. “Oh my God! It’s coming!”
Doug closed his eyes. Too late.
This historic micro-fiction piece is based on the life and death of a storm chaser named Tim Samaras. On May 31, 2013, Tim and his photographer son Paul Samaras, and meteorologist Carl Young (all members of the research group TWISTEX, founded by Tim), were attempting to gather lightning data when the largest tornado in U.S. history formed over El Reno, Oklahoma and the three were unable to escape its path.
Tim was a scientist who was devoted to developing technology that would help future generations to learn from the meteorological circumstances that cause tornadoes. You can read an excellent wiki about Tim Samaras to learn more.
Although Tim was passionate about gathering data, and was a very determined storm chaser, he was also very careful. By all accounts, he would never have put his son's life in danger. According to the wiki about Tim Samaras, "The true size of the multiple-vortex tornado confused onlookers by its mammoth proportions containing orbiting subvortices larger than average tornadoes and its expansive transparent to translucent outer circulation."
In other words, it was like multiple tornadoes in one. It was massive. And it would have been impossible to understand its proportions or direction if you were in its vicinity.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons - by Nick Nolte - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26604187
It is believed that the storm chasers were attempting to parallel the storm on a county road, south of the storm's path when it shifted and came upon them.
This image shows the swath of the El Reno tornado.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons - By National Weather Service Office in Norman, Oklahoma - http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=events-20130531, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26487631
I pulled the following image of the TWISTEX team from Wikimedia Commons. The wiki does not list the names of the TWISTEX members in this image, but I believe it includes Tim Samaras, center, in the blue shirt, meteorologist Carl Young in the navy blue shirt to the right, and Tim's son Paul Samaras to the far right in the red jersey. All three were killed in the El Reno tornado, when they were caught by surprise as the tornado shifted south over their location. (The three men are also pictured in a DailyMail article with fellow storm chaser Tony Laubach, pictured here third from the left.)
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons image by Laubacht - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8568821
Tim Samaras's TWISTEX vehicle was found by officer Doug Gerten after the storm passed. Tim's body was still in the passenger seat of the car, but the other two victim's were found half a mile east and half a mile west.
Although Doug Gerten is the main character in my fictionalized account, I have no idea whether he was the one listening to the police radio just before the tragic event. It didn't feel right to put this in the story, but the three storm chasers were heard on police radio just before their death screaming "We're going to die! We're going to die!"
Rest in peace, Tim, Paul and Carl.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons - By National Weather Service Office in Norman, Oklahoma - http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=events-20130531, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26487631
Thanks for reading. This micro-fiction piece is a 50-word short story for the weekly Fifty-word challenge. The prompt for this piece was "danger," and the original version of the story actually included the word. But the word "danger" didn't make the cut in the final version. I wanted the reader to experience it.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://jaynalocke.com/2018/07/29/supercell-historical-micro-fiction-the-life-and-death-of-a-storm-chaser/
Well, there's some serious backstory right there.
Not sure if it was intentional, but ending the post with the photo of the crushed car at the end really solidified the impact.
I've never seen a tornado, but I've always had a half-submerged fear of them whenever a particularly strong storm hits. I'm sure it comes from my mom. She has always been afraid of them, and in hindsight it feels like I spent half my childhood in the basement, banished there for safety when even the lightest of summer sprinkles pattered through.
They really are frightening. Here in Minnesota tornados tend to be fairly localized. I’m sure there are scientific reasons why they are more frequent and can be so much bigger and more deadly in other parts of Tornado Alley, like Texas and Oklahoma.
I did save the image of the crushed car to the end, partly because the story is about danger, which is the risk and perhaps the sense of dread that accompanies real and perceived threats, and the image of the car is the aftermath. But also, I wanted to honor this storm chaser’s work and commitment to science. The fact that his life ended with a storm reducing his vehicle to scrap metal like a trash compactor is certainly horrific, but it is only a part of the story.
Thanks so much for reading, and for your awesome comment, Neg!
You succeeded in making us experience danger without reading it in the story. I have always had mixed feelings for these brave people who chase danger of different kids for the sake of knowledge, science and humanity. Part of me loves them, part of me wants to punch them and send them home to enjoy their family.
We can't help admiring in them what all of us would like to be: Brave in the face of imminent death.
I agree completely. It's hard to understand how someone could be so selfless is one sense, by putting their lives at risk in the name of science, and simultaneously so selfish by putting themselves in peril without regard to the suffering caused to their families. That said, without people like Tim Samaras, a lot of things would never be discovered, and we wouldn't have the data we need for predictive solutions. Also, I am just crazy enough, myself, that I actually get why he was so passionate about being in the vicinity of these massive forces of nature. I am pretty sure I will be a storm chaser in my next life.
Thanks for your great comment, @hlezama!
Hahahaha. Wouldn't it be nice if we could sort of make reservations for what our next life would be like?
It's been great reading you.
Yes! I’d like to place an order, please. Here are my specifications! No I would not like fries with that.
Thank you for the nice compliment!
Well you definitely had me feeling it. I can't imagine what they felt. It is hard to come up with the words that would go with this. The loss of precious lives never have the right sayings.
Mother nature can never be controlled but can only be trusted that it will do what it has to. Whatever that may be we can never be too careful.
Rest in peace to those 3 men that worked so hard for our future.
Thank you for your comment, @foxyspirit. You captured what I feel about it exactly. I admire them so much for their hard work. They watched hundreds of storms develop, and managed to remain safe, until that one. It must have terrifying to know their luck had run out, and their lives and research were over.
So many feelings at once. As a parent it has me thinking and feeling for his son as though I was the father during that time. The memories made, the times of holding him as a baby, everything. Oh my god... I just can't imagine it all. That is hard :(
Indeed. They left behind Tim’s wife and two daughters (the son’s sisters). We must embrace and appreciate what we have, and love the people in our lives!
A very interesting story. It's a shame the three men lost their lives doing something, I assume, they loved.
Yes, it really is a shame. And yes, it was something they loved and were passionate about. Everything I read in researching this story suggested as much. One thing Tim Samaras was quoted as saying on multiple occasions was that tornadoes are not the most dangerous aspect of storm chasing. He said it was about third on the list. The first one was road hazards during storms, and I believe the second was flying debris. Maybe he didn't want to think that super storms are as dangerous as they are, as it would have made him too fearful to do the work he loved.
Thanks for reading and commenting, @sk43!