Storm chasers killed during tornadoes

[Iterate]

44. About Tim Samaras, and spotters pay tribute.

http://www.thunderchase.com/about

All 3 sets of initials of the chasers killed by Friday's #tornado are now spelled out by spotters across the Plains:

http://www.spotternetwork.org/google.php

Tim pieced together support for his research from publishing, from video, from grants that included National Geographic, from the engineering design of weather recording devices, and even from the Discovery Channel. He did that because we cannot simply fund more than a few researchers through universities, federal research, or the National Weather Service. He did it anyway.

His latest project was the purchase of a war surplus high-speed, one million pictures per second camera originally built for filming nuclear explosions. He converted the 6000 pound camera to digital and mounted it inside a van, attempting to be the first to capture images of lightning in such detail.

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I was a spotter back in the 1970's and some in the 1980's. It wasn't chasing back them, more like sitting on a hill and waiting to get pounded. Always calm and collected, there just never seemed to be a reason to get upset. Hail dents will pound out and you can always get unstuck tomorrow.

But the first tornado I had to call in, I sounded like an over-caffeinated seven-year-old girl on fright night. I hope no one kept a tape.