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Star of Discovery’s ‘Storm Chasers’ Killed in Oklahoma Tornado

Jun 2, 2013  •  Post A Comment

"A star of the Discovery Channel show ‘Storm Chasers,’ his son and a colleague have been identified as three of the 13 people killed after an outbreak of tornadoes struck the Oklahoma City area on Friday," Fox News reports. .

The story continues, "Tim Samaras, 55, died with his son Paul, 24, and friend Carl Young, 45, in Canadian County chasing down a tornado that wreaked havoc along Interstate 40, Fox 25 [Sinclair’s KOKH in Oklahome City] reports."

The article adds, "  ‘We are deeply saddened by the loss of Tim Samaras his son Paul and their colleague Carl Young,’ the Discovery Channel said in a statement to FOX411. ‘Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families.’ "

The artcle also says " ‘We were shocked and deeply saddened by the news that longtime National Geographic grantee Tim Samaras was killed,’ National Geographic Executive Vice President Terry Garcia said in a statement. ‘Tim was a courageous and brilliant scientist who fearlessly pursued tornadoes and lightning in the field in an effort to better understand these phenomena.’ "

The story notes "Tim Samaras is a 20-year veteran of storm chasing and founded the project TWISTEX (Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in Tornadoes Experiment), which gathers weather information by placing devices in the way of tornadoes, [according to another Fox station].

"In 2004, Tim Samaras dropped a probe into the path of an EF-4 tornado, where it measured a 100 millibar pressure drop — a record that still stands today, the Discovery Channel’s website says."

Tim Samaras, Carl Young and their team had tracked down more than 125 tornadoes.

Thumbnail image for Storm Chasers Tim and Carl.jpg

Tim Samaras (right) and Carl Young

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