#tim samaras

[song-for-an-unborn-sun]

[russell-crowe]

twistex memorial, 01.06.26.

[theyaoimonster]

Editing 3 ACTUAL DEAD people to that one "6 little eggs on the run" song is disgusting

[whatsnewalycat]

Only 25 mins into this audiobook and holy shit the way this person writes is fucking delicious.

[nightgeist]

I drew something for once! This took me like 8 hours, and around 3 of those was just the grass lmao. I already posted this on my Instagram, but Instagram has a short word limit so you guys have to deal with my full explanation >:) I tried to not let this get too long, but knowing me I nerded out. I apologize.

On this day 10 years ago, May 31st 2013, an incredibly unpredictable and unusual storm formed over El Reno, Oklahoma. While Oklahoma is not unfamiliar with supercells by any means, this particular one proved to be erratic in a way that still holds a world-record, makes us question the Enhanced Fujita scale’s accuracy with our advancements in technology since its creation, and still leaves a visible shockwave in not just the location it touched down, but entire communities of storm chasers, weather-related engineers and storm interested people in general. The El Reno 2013 tornado still holds the world record for the widest tornado ever recorded, at a whopping 2.6 miles wide. Not only that, but it had a peak wind speed of around 302 MPH, and lasted 40 minutes on the ground. The biggest factors that made this storm as dangerous as it was, however, were what made it so peculiar. It moved in an unpredictably erratic fashion compared to other tornadoes by changing directions several times and quite suddenly, as well as moved in a direction tornadoes don’t typically move. It was also rain wrapped, which made it even harder to see with its massive size, AND it had several satellite tornadoes and subvortices that moved just as erratically as the main one. To this day, this specific tornado has made many question the EF scale, I could go into that whole ordeal but it would be way too long for this caption. Luckily, this tornado mainly stayed over farmland in the more rural part of the city (which is part of the reason it got rated incorrectly to so many people, including myself), but despite this it caused 8 fatalities. While this post is to recognize all of them and the event itself, there are 3 specific people I want to talk about.

When I was younger, I watched some storm chaser content out of curiosity despite having a phobia of tornadoes that I’m still working on but getting better with. While it was mostly just random content on youtube, there was one group I watched more often than the rest; the TWISTEX team. They weren’t just normal storm chasers though; the founder was an engineer who made many groundbreaking things for our current understanding of weather, such as the ‘turtle probes’ that recorded the inside of tornadoes and took measurements of the inside of them. He also was the one to measure the current record holder for the largest pressure drop on Earth, which he measured inside a tornado. He and his team made so many advancements that have helped us understand these storms as much as we do now, and in the storm chasing community, Tim was known as the most careful storm chaser you could come across, for he knew what he was working with. So on the day of El Reno 2013, him, his son Paul Samaras, and their teammate Carl Young set out to El Reno to be there for the storm and release the turtle probe inside the tornado for research purposes. Their vehicle had radars and other equipment to track its movement safely. They were moving parallel to it, which is the safest route when following a tornado, and they were going to get way ahead of it, set up the turtle, and leave before it got anywhere near them. However, nature had other plans.

As they were going down Reuter Road, a dirt street with farmland surrounding it, the tornado took a sharp turn right towards them in all its erratic fashion. They saw this in their radar and tried their best to outrun it, however one of the subvortices, just as unpredictable, picked their Cobalt up off the ground, slammed it over and over into the ground, and then tossed it down. This direction change happened so quickly that the man driving just behind them on Reuter Road, Dan Robinson, made it out with little injury and actually recorded the whole event on his dashcam, which is unreleased to the public for obvious reasons. All 3 of the men were killed by the tornado, Tim still inside the car while Paul and Carl were ejected, one of them being found a half mile away. These men are still highly respected in the storm community today for all of their work, and some experienced chasers still make their way to the memorial for them in El Reno every year. I was saddened when I found out what happened to them years later, after having not watched their content for a while. I have high respect for the TWISTEX team and especially Tim Samaras, and they are who got me so into this stuff myself (don’t worry, I don’t plan on storm chasing ever lol, just seeing a tornado watch for my area freaks me out). I hope to one day visit their memorial as well, plus El Reno is a really pretty town off of route 66 and that is a WHOLE other can of worms I’m extremely into.

So, I wanted to make this for today, and have been planning on it for a while now. To both just draw one of the most insane storms in history, and to commemorate the TWISTEX team for all they’ve done and how they inspire me. I chose Reuter and Radio roads for the signs, as it was the roads they drove on during the storm and where their memorial currently sits.

[incorrectstormchasersquotes]

Carl: I gave up my old life choices when I let Jesus take the wheel.

Tim: That is a Carrie Underwood song, not a life choice.

[silvertoruby]

And yet another. I rather enjoyed it.

[piecesofscully]

Sometimes I think about Tim Samaras and I get bummed out all over again.