OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Family members and members of the storm chasing community are confirming that well-respected tornado researcher and storm chaser Tim Samaras is among the eleven confirmed victims of Friday’s tornado that ripped through El Reno, Oklahoma.
Samaras was one of the most well-known and respected tornado researchers in the world and had made many appearances on television shows like the Discovery Channel series Storm Chasers and was a regular contributor to shows on National Geographic.
Samaras, a 20-year veteran of storm chasing, started his own research project called TWISTEX, which gathered weather information by placing probes directly in the path of tornadoes. The often heart-stopping footage of Samaras and his team placing probes directly in a twister’s path was filmed for three seasons of the Discovery Channel series Storm Chasers.
Preliminary findings from the National Weather Service in Norman have initially rated the tornado as an EF-3.
