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.

Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for future updates!

The Fun Summary Post!

Today is the day! I have finally finished my map of major places we visited on our journey across the United States while storm spotting. Before we left Indianapolis, Jason gave me an official milage count I would like to share with you as well. The mileage that the map gives will not match the mileage we traveled on our trip for various reasons, such as including driving to and from State College, and not including pit stops.

Anyway, here is the map I came up with. This is a very general map just showing the towns we stopped in along the way. The routes aren't correct because one simply cannot remember the exact route we took to every single place we went that week!

A general overview of our route.

Based on the above map we traveled (including travel time to and from State College, Pa) about 70 hours 20 minutes and 4,397.95 miles on our trip. The official mileage that Jason gave me for the actual trip, including pit stops and not including the driving to and from State College, was 3,679 miles. Either way you look at it, that is a lot of driving. Even when I take out traveling to and from State College the amount of hours driven on this trip is still amazing, about 53 hours and 38 minutes!

The map that I made unfortunately doesn't tell you the names of the cities that we stopped in. That's why I'm here. I can do that for you. So for those of you that are curious, I am going to list, in order, the names of the cities that we stopped in for either storm spotting purposes or to stay the night,

1. Indianapolis, Indiana

2. Hull, Illinois

3. Quincy, Illinois

4. Memphis, Tennessee

5. Tuscumbia, Alabama

6. Little Rock, Arkansas

7. Mayflower, Arkansas

8. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

9. Norman, Oklahoma

10. Moore, Oklahoma

11. El Reno, Oklahoma

12. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (again)

13. Salina, Kansas

14. North Platte, Nebraska

15. Alliance, Nebraska

16. Ogallala, Nebraska

17. Indianapolis, Indiana (back where we began)

I also made a list of states visited, as a whole group,  during the trip. I am going to list them here along with their nicknames just for fun. They are pretty much in the order that we visited them.

Indiana - The Hoosier State

Illinois - Land of Lincoln or The Prairie State

Missouri - The Show Me State

Arkansas - The Natural State (current) and The Land of Opportunity (former)

Tennessee - The Volunteer State

Mississippi - The Magnolia State or The Hospitality State

Alabama - Yellowhammer State, Heart of Dixie, or Cotton State

Oklahoma - Sooner State

Kansas - The Sunflower State

Nebraska - Cornhusker State

Iowa - The Hawkeye State

My next venture for the blog is to try to get a place set up where we can put all of our photos and you can view them. I hope to get it up and working soon! Also we are still working on that video. Keep checking back for some updates. They will be coming your way soon!

The Long Drive Home And The Experiences We Took Home With Us.

We all woke up the next morning still in disbelief with what happened the day before. I can't say we were all awake when we woke up, but we had no choice but the leave Ogallala at around 7:15 am, despite getting into the hotel so late. The drive ahead of us was very long, as a matter of fact it was 932 miles which was 13 hours and 48 minutes. Now, don't forget the time zones! During this drive we drove through 2 time zones (from Mountain time to Eastern time) losing a hour each time. This made the trip technically 15 hours and 48 minutes, and we had to do it all in one trip. No hotel stops along the way. We were on a tight schedule and had to be back to Indianapolis that night. I must admit, I didn't think we were going to do it. I really don't think any of us did. Jason though, he knew he was going to do it, and nobody was stopping him.

The route we took from Ogallala NE to Indianapolis, IN.

Now, one might think that a car ride of this magnitude would be extreme torture, especially after traveling all over the country for the last 8 days in a 12-passenger van, but actually it wasn't. After all this traveling I became immune to the car ride that day. As for the others, I can't speak for them, but they seemed to be doing just fine. Every time I looked back they were either sleeping, taking selfies for SnapChats, taking video, having a sing-a-long, or playing some sort of game. For mostly all of the trip, Kat sat up front to navigate (that was her job). After we got closer to Indy and drove more into Jason's territory, he relieved her of her navigating duties. I think she was pretty excited. At this point I jumped up front just to see what it was like to help co-pilot the van. Man, despite what Kat might think, she had it made up there. It was so comfy and there was leg room and places to put stuff and it was harder to get car sick and well the list goes on forever.

While sitting up front, I got the luxury of being the DJ. When I played my music it seems everyone fell asleep. Ha ha, guess my music bored them! Naw, they said they couldn't hear it. They weren't lying though. The difference in sound between the front of the van and the first row was tremendous. It was super loud up front and really low in the first row. Now I know why Jason kept turning it down all the time, or kept it at, what I thought was, a low level.

While up front, Jason made a wager with me that we would be back at the hotel by 12:31 am. I was having none of that. I didn't believe him...my navigation said 12:45 am. We didn't bet anything but it sure was fun to see how it turned out. After leaving at 7:15 am we arrived in front our hotel at yes, you guessed it, 12:31 am. Teaches me to doubt the professional!

So this was it. This was the end of what has come to be one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The friendships that were formed on this trip will remain with me forever. Our group was so tight-knit and everyone loved everyone. Oh, the snapchats that were sent during this trip! I saved some of them just to look back on. And oh man, all the antics that occurred! Especially the singing of Summertime Sadness, that song became our anthem! There was never a day where I woke up and thought that I didn't want to be with our group. Matter of fact there was never a dull day with this lovely group of young, free-spirited, Meteorology college students. We all just got along so well, like we were all meant to be on this trip together. I love every single one of you guys so much, and I am so thankful for the experiences that we shared together. Thanks for making this the best 10 days of my life, seriously!

Our fantastic group!

It was so sad to get out of that van for the last time. I seriously think I got separation anxiety that night. A few of us even gave the van a goodbye hug....Jake! It was something that we had come to know and love on our trip around the country, almost like an old reliable friend. This thing got us all around the country and never once let us down. Not even in the middle of no where, where for 100's of miles you didn't even see a house. I think it deserves at least a little bit of praise!

I want to take the time to thank Jason from all of us! Without him there really would have been no trip. All the time and planning he put into this blows me away. Not to mention all the driving he did to take us to where we needed/wanted to go. All the nights he went to bed completely exhausted did not go unnoticed. He worked so hard and made sure we got a very meaningful and educational experience from this trip. I learned so much from him. He taught us about Cumulus fields and the dynamics to look for ahead of them to spot potential for storm development. He introduced to backfilling in storms, quizzed us on our cloud formations and so much more. He even showed us how to have a little fun by taking us go-karting. Oh boy! That night was some of the most fun I had in a really long time. I also picked up a few new favorite songs to listen to compliments of him. Thank you for openly sharing your knowledge with us and leading us on the chase of a lifetime! You are a pretty awesome dude, if I can say so myself.

After settling into the hotel and spending a few more hours of quality time together we all went to sleep to wake up the next day and travel back to State College, Pa. Our drive back took roughly 8 hours and 40 minutes and we covered 550 miles.

Stick around for a summary of total time and total miles traveled. I'm working on a map to show the aforementioned and a list of all the states we visited. Also, during our trip we taped a lot of home videos. I hope to get that posted as soon as Jake finishes editing it! It will be worth the wait, I promise!

Our drive home.

The Opportunity of A Lifetime

As we drove toward the severe warned cell something incredible happened. It went tornado warned! So this was it, this is what we've all been waiting for. Jason said he had a good feeling about our position and this storm and we wasn't lying! We kept a close watch on our precious baby as we neared the position we needed to be in to intercept. With each passing mile bringing us closer to see the amazing structure of our cell, each of us became more anxious to get out of the van and just take all of this in.

They aren't too easy to make out, but the clouds on hanging off the anvil are mammatus!

As we came closer to the storm, we saw the beautiful structure appear before our very eyes. Thanks to Travis we got some very memorable photos of us pulled off to the side of the road savoring the beauty that was in front of our eyes. Here are a few of my personal favorites.

Our storm on radar. We are the blue cross-hair!

Shortly after taking these photos we moved to another position to observe the storm from a different angle. As we were moving to a new area, I'm pretty sure we witnessed another mesocyclone form right off to the left of us. Jason's face lit up when I pointed it out. He hasn't seen a structure like that in some time, so it caught his attention. We were like children in a toy store. Every last one of us. Put a bunch of meteorologist in front of a magnificent tornado warned cell and we all lose our sanity. I simply can't explain it. Imagine the most magnificent feeling you can feel, that won't even describe how we felt this day. For some of us, if not most, this was our biggest dream come true. I know for a fact, it was mine.

After repositioning we found ourselves in a field to view the magnificent structure that developed right in front of our eyes. The view from this field will be one that we never ever forget. The pictures speak for themselves! All the photos below were contributed by various members of our group. Thank you to every one who supplied these beautiful photos to post here on the blog.

Panorama of the group and the storm.

A stunning cloud-to-ground lightning shot.

Here we see Jason taking in the beauty of the storm before his eyes.

There are just no words to describe the pure beauty of this very photogenic storm.

You can see the rain shaft, if you look closely.

Cloud-to-cloud lightning.

Beautiful black and white shot.

Another panorama.

After the storm had withered away, we all went for dinner, then headed out on the road to find a hotel for the night. Ultimately, we ended up in Ogallala for the evening after driving for 147 miles and 2 hours 22 minutes. This night was a late one. We stumbled into the hotel around 1:53 am, and we were all exhausted. Thus concluded our chase trip, sadly. We went out with a bang! I plan to post a few more things on here about our trip, so don't be sad. You'll hear from me again soon, I promise. I have a few more ideas up my sleeve and still have to talk about out crazy trip home the next morning. Stay tuned for more blogging!

The route we took from Alliance to Ogallala. Took some very remote roads for a little while. A bit scary.

Much Excitement!

Wow. Since that last post so much has happened. Our trip literally exploded at the end. I'm going to have to split the last 2 days of our trip into 2 or 3 different post to give you an accurate representation of what happened.

Where do I begin? Ah, yes! After the pitstop at the random gas station we stopped at a Dairy Queen somewhere along the way just to talk about what we wanted to do. Now at this point, I think we were all starting to get a little discouraged, we talked about heading back east to get a start on our trip home. After waiting a few hours, there were still no storms initiating at the time. Something changed though. Just as we all lost hope, Devin and Jason came back with an interesting discovery, storms were indeed starting to fire to our west. I guess they had a conversation in the DQ while everyone was out in the van. They came back and basically said we have a few hours yet, they felt good about our position and they wanted to head north some more. They both had a hunch that something was going to happen in our favor.

At that point we headed back out on the road toward North Platte, Nebraska. When we got there we decided to do a few more rounds of go-karts while waiting for the storms to fire. How we ended up by yet another go-kart track is beyond me, but it was there and for 5 dollars a race we couldn't pass up the opportunity. There were 2 tracks, one strictly a racing track, the other a challenge course. The racing track was fun, but the challenge course was much better. It was covered in talcum power and the name of the game was to try not to spin out. We were split up into 2 separate races. Mike, Travis, and Devin were the guinea pigs for the first race. Jason, John, myself, and Matt went second and Jason put the GoPro up on the front of his car the document all the action. As soon Jason pulled out his GoPro fell over so he had to hold it the whole time, but we still had a blast. The course was indeed a challenge and a great way to pass time as we waited for storms to start firing.

As soon as the go-kart shenanigans were over and we saw that storms finally started to initiate, we all piled in the van faster than one could even imagine. The time it took 10 of us to get in that van, and get back on the road was simply incredible. That's what happens when 10 people who are crazy about severe storms knows that something is going to happen, the adrenaline rushes. The van broke into a series of "Wooooos" (It's a van joke).  It took us a total of .2 seconds to get into chase mode. We set out on the road very excited that we finally got a break. We were about to witness the most impressive thing that most of us has ever seen.

This is the route we took to intercept our storm. It was a 3 hour 19 minute, 188 mile drive.

The drive to intercept our storm was one of the most anxious that we had on the entire trip. It was the last chase day of our trip and we hit the jackpot. Just imagine all the emotions and excitement that was cooped up in that 12- passenger van. We were all ready to explode. We worked together so well to get to our storm. I'll leave the excitement build for the next blog post! Keep reading!

Here is the storm we decided to chase. 

On the Road Again

The last 2 days have really been uneventful, in terms of chasing. After making a few pitstops along the way from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at Pop's Restaurant on Route 66 (Pop's Webpage) and the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center (Cosmosphere Webpage) we ended up in Salina, Kansas for the night.

The giant soda bottle that stands in front of POP's.

A never ending wall of a million and one differnt kinds of "pop" at POP's on Route 66 in Arcadia, Kansas.

The drive from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Salina, Kansas took roughly 3 hours and 37 minutes and was a 247 mile drive. I'm pretty sure we are really close to hitting the 2,000 mile mark on our trip, if we haven't already.

For some reason, yesterday was a pretty stressful day. I definitely felt a bit anxious by the time we got to our hotel for the night. The last 2 days of hotel searching has been pretty rough, looking for a hotel for 10 people at a reasonable rate is not as easy as one would think it is. Searching for hotels for 2 hours and not coming up with anything because half of them do not have availability and the other half is too expensive, is slightly stressful, especially when your not just trying to find a room for yourself but a whole group of people. Thankfully Jason came to the rescue and found us one, because my efforts were an epic fail. He found a pretty great place to stay for the evening.

Moving on to todays events! We met this morning to talk about our plans for today. Again, our chasing options are pretty minimal and almost out of reach. There is is a slight risk up near the extreme northwestern corner of Nebraska, but it doesn't seem we will make it there in time. It's an 8 hour drive, meaning we wouldn't get there until around 5pm tonight, which leaves us a small chase window before sundown. Right now the general plan is to head up toward Hastings, Nebraska, which is in the see text area for the Day 1 convective outlook. The drive from Salina to Hastings is about 168 miles and 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Our plan for today. We might actually get more north than this, but Hastings is where we plan to regroup.

This is the Day 1 Convection outlook. We are aiming to be in the green area in Nebraska. The yellow area is a bit out of reach, unfortunately.

Once we get to Hastings we will regroup and figure out what direction we need to go in order to get into position to catch a storm if we can. At the meeting this morning we talked about how hit and miss these storms will be today. Jason mentioned how the storms will be elevated storms and short-lived. They will rain themselves out in about an hour or so, therefore catching up with one will prove to be difficult.

Right now we are on the road heading to Hastings. We are heading north on 81 in Nebraska. The group just made a pitstop at a gas station on 81 to look at CAPE, CIN, 500 mb vorticity, and visual satellite. After taking a look at that, we see that Hastings has a lot of CIN and is lacking in CAPE. There is a Cumulus field that is in Colorado now, that we are keeping an eye on. The purpose of that is to see where the Cumulus field is heading via visible satellite and look for places east of it where CAPE values would be sufficient enough to help some storms fire. Unfortunately, in our case CAPE isn't looking too good. We will keep a close eye on the conditions as we move closer to Hastings, which is about an hour and half away from our current position. 

While you wait for an update on our plans and position, enjoy a photo of our exciting scenery.

Our never ending view of nothing.

A Day Full of Meaningful Experiences and Humbling Reminders of the Power of Mother Nature

For the most part we stayed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for the day. Despite being in this general area all day it was a very busy day packed with tons of things to do. First thing in the morning we stopped at the Storm Prediction Center to get a tour. The tour took a total of about an hour and we all learned a lot. Here are some photos from our experience at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

Here we are learning a little bit about the types of radar vehicles that the SPC uses. We also were told a little bit about up and coming radar advances and ideas.

Here you can see 3 out of the 4 radar vehicles that the SPC houses. The 4th one is unfortunately out for repair.

Perhaps my favorite type of radar vehicle, the Mesonet vehicle. These vans drive as close as possible (with being as safe as possible) to a storm and collect data of what's happening inside the storm.

The view from the Oklahoma University Student Weather Center at the National Weather Center Building.

Here is a group shot of us at the SPC in front of some abstract art. It's a tornado!

I believe that the photos above can pretty accurately show most of our trip. I do have a lot more photos to share, but to put them all in here would make this post extremely long, therefore I only chose a select few.

After touring the SPC we drove through Moore, Oklahoma to see the remnants of the tornado damage that was left from last year's devastating EF5 tornado. There were still a few reminders of what destruction had occurred that day, such as the destroyed medical center, which now resides in temporary white buildings in the lot of where the old medical center used to stand. Also a small housing development across the street from where the medical center once stood is still being repaired and rebuilt. Every time I see one of these areas that have been devastated by a tornado I just can't help but to stop and reflect on what these people may be feeling and how they felt that day. If I could ask you, the reader, one favor it would be this; Take a second to ponder what you would do in this situation. How would you feel? What thoughts would cross your mind? How would you react to this situation? Those are just a few things that I feel would be worth thinking about. This is a very sensitive topic in these towns and we must be respectful of the trauma they have been through. 

The next stop on our travels for today was something very near and dear to my heart. It's something that I have been wanting to get a chance to see since hearing that it was there. I am talking about visiting the Twistex memorial. Our group got the opportunity to do that today, and I believe that it is an opportunity that we would have never gotten had we not been on this tour. I want to thank Jason, for all of us, for making this happen. To be able to memorialize three wonderful guys who really were in this field to improve the data and research is just a wonderful opportunity. I personally did not know Tim, but Jason did, and the conversations that we had about him made me feel Tim's essence.

 I am trying to keep this blog as more of a group thing, but I really wanted to mention how much I aspired to be like Tim.  As a young person interested in severe storms, I looked up to him and admired him. Oh, how I wanted to one day meet him. That dream was taken away from me when the 2013, 2.6 mile wide,  EF3 El Reno tornado so unforgivingly took the lives of these three wonderful men. To be able to pay my respects to Tim, Paul and Carl, truly did mean the world to me. More than anyone can ever know. This is an experience that will stay with me, and I'm sure every single person in this group, for the rest of our lives. It's a reminder that no matter how skilled you are, these storms are utterly unpredictable and dangerous. Even the best of the best can get caught in one, and that was proved true when the experienced Twistex team perished in this monster tornado. In the photo below we see Jason paying his respects to Tim, Paul, and Carl, and documenting the Twistex Road Side Memorial site.

In the photo below, I am personally paying tribute to the Twistex team. Thank you to Travis for documenting this very special moment for me.

I guess all that's left to say is that today was a day filled of very meaningful experiences for our group and we are all happy that we got the opportunity to feel what we felt and see what we saw. It really opens your eyes and makes you think a little deeper and reminds you to just appreciate your life. One day you may be here, and the next you may be gone, like the Twistex Team. I'll let you take that all in and ponder it for a little while...

The plan for tomorrow is to have a meeting at 9:15 am to get talking about some upcoming chase opportunities. I'll update again as soon as possible.