Tornadoes, Lightning in Rare VideoTornadoes, Lightning in Rare Video
Tim Samaras is the Operations Manager for the Colorado Division of NTS. Tim has been working on research in instrumentation development and severe storm research including instrumentation package deployment on Project TWISTEX (Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in Tornado/Thunderstorm Experiment.)
Tim Samaras spends May and June in a van outfitted with GPS, radios, scanners, monitors, a wireless Internet connection, and satellite tracking instruments. His harrowing task: to spot tornadoes, try to put himself in their path, and then deploy newly designed probes that measure meteorological conditions in the vortex of the beasts. Then he promptly gets out of the way. “The tools I come up with have to take nearly impossible measurements.”
As families scramble to avoid deadly tornadoes, Tim Samaras races straight toward them. He careens across the United States’ notorious Tornado Alley on a mission: Predict the exact coordinates of an unborn tornado, arrive before it does, and place a weather-measurement probe directly in the twister’s violent, swirling path.
“Data from the probes helps us understand tornado dynamics and how they form. With that piece of the puzzle we can make more precise forecasts and ultimately give people earlier warnings,” Samaras explained. Since current warnings average a slim 13 minutes, every extra second of warning can be a lifesaver for residents facing a twister’s wrath.
We will be following Tim on his adventures this summer as the Discovery Channels tapes his outings for the upcoming Storm Chasers episodes due to be aired Fall 2010.
http://thunderchase.com/content/view/13/31/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TWISTEX/323856020150
http://www.facebook.com/StormChasers
