Remembering the TWISTEX Team: Introductions

Left to Right: Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras, and Carl Young.
Photo provided by: ABC news.

With the anniversary of the monster El Reno tornado approaching in a little under a week, I believe now would be the perfect time to start a blog project memorializing Tim Samaras and the TWISTEX team. Little vortices of thoughts are spinning uncontrollably in my head making it difficult to pick a focus point for this project. This can be taken in so many different directions, but I'm trying to tell a story here and trying to figure out what story to tell is proving to be pretty difficult. How does one write a post/posts that would portray the exact feelings they have for Tim and his TWISTEX team? How can I get you, the reader, to feel the emotions I feel when talking or thinking about these men and their contributions to the Meteorology field? The words are just going to flow from my heart with the hopes that someone will pick up the emotions flowing out with it. When posting on a blog site like this, it's your goal to try not to be biased or make things too personal. In this particular case, it's very difficult to do so. To not use the word "I" when talking about this subject, is well, impossible. With this being said, please bear with me and know that these are my personal thoughts and feelings. These posts are how I would like to express myself on this very somber subject. They do not entirely express the thoughts and feelings of the StormTrackerWx team, but just the thoughts of one young woman who deeply admired Tim and his team.

Tim and his TWISTEX team.  Photography by Carl Young.

For those of you who don't know, TWISTEX,  is an acronym for Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in/near Tornadoes EXperiment that Tim coined. Now, I never had the amazing opportunity to meet Tim, but I do remember the first time I saw him on TV. The show was called Storm Chasers and I have been watching it since high school. I didn't regularly keep up with the episodes, but I wish I had. If I did, Tim Samaras and his amazing TWISTEX team would have came into my life much sooner than they did.  It probably wasn't until maybe a year before this tragedy struck, that I saw Tim and his team on the show. Over that short time my interest in Tim grew tremendously, like towering cumulonimbus clouds on the perfect severe weather day. I went through the entire series just waiting to see what Tim had up his sleeve in each episode that he starred. 

Tim Samaras and Carl Young.
Photo provided by: www.Discovery.com

There was something very different about Tim and his TWISTEX team. He had something that the other chasers lacked. A different type of passion and enthusiasm. A different type of respect and love for storms. He approached his chases more methodical than the others. I think that's what made me fall in love with Tim. He respected the storm, always. He didn't go after something he thought would be too much for him and his team. Safety was always Tim's first concern, it seemed to be his golden rule as a matter of fact. If a particular chase was going to be too risky, he simply didn't chase that day. No questions asked. Tim had the right to veto any chase and if he felt that it would be too risky, he would use that veto no matter what. Which brings me to the mystery question : What happened to the TWISTEX team on May 31st 2013. There is a lot of speculation, but no definite answers. Unfortunately, the only people who could answer that question are Tim, Paul and Carl. To my dislike, I guess it will remain a mystery...

The loss of these 3 men did not only affect their many family members and friends, but many people worldwide, such as us here at StormTrackerWx.com. Tim was an inspiration for meteorologists all over the country and our goal for this project is provide information about Tim and his team and how they have positively affected our meteorological community. The StormTrackerWx team plans to have something special posted on Saturday May 31st 2014, the 1 year anniversary of the storm, and we are working really hard to achieve this goal. Stick around to read more posts pertaining to Tim, Paul, Carl, the TWISTEX team, and the El Reno tornado in the upcoming days.

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