In late May of 2010, I received a phone call from my good friend, Tony Laubach. He asked if I’d like to join Twistex for a few days of chasing on the Northern Plains. Initially, I declined as I had already expended my available chasing money, but he told me not to worry about it and that it would be taken care of. Tony was a regular part of the TWISTEX project, developed originally by Tim Samaras, a renowned and talented engineer and storm chaser. That year, TWISTEX was also being featured in the Discovery Channel series “Storm Chasers”. I had a great deal of respect for Tim and had talked with him briefly on numerous occasions, mostly at the various storm chaser conventions and occasionally in the field. I admired him and his research and revered him above most. I began the day with Tony in one of the mesonet vehicles and we eventually met up with Tim, Carl, Paul and some of the Discovery Channel crew. I honestly felt unworthy of being there with them all but Tim quickly allayed my insecurity with a hearty welcome, bolstered by that of Carl. Our target that day was eastern Montana, into the Dakotas. Inhibition was present and high cloudcover didn’t help much. We stopped in Miles City, Montana to have a late lunch under broken cirrostratus and fix a tire. Delays on a chase day always heighten anxiety, but it turned out we had nothing to worry about, since no storms decided to fire that day. After a fun night in the Black Hills, we were off to Nebraska’s Sand Hills for the next day. No one was cranky after busting the day before even as the models panned the present day’s tornado risk. The TV crew was busy doing stunt camera-work, capturing driving B-roll for the series, which was pretty funny. They’d speed past and set up on an overpass as we’d drive under or they’d hang out the back of their SUV in front to get some interesting angles. After McDonald’s (where else?) for lunch in Valentine, NE, we found a severe storm in the abyss known as Cherry County. Tim was busy directing us around, though the visibility was bad. Nobody had any data. We were unable to position ourselves on the eventually fading storm and dropped south to reassess. All through the day, I was giving my input on the forecast… I was just trying to be useful! But I’ll never forget that Tim actually cared about what I had to say. It would have been easy for him, a man with a lot more experience in the field to dismiss me, but he didn’t. And I guess that’s the point of this whole story. He was just one of those men that cared about and trusted other people. Though both days were a bust as far as storms are concerned, I still feel honored that I was able spend that time with him and Carl and Paul and the rest of the team. So, I’m thinking of them today, the one year anniversary of the El Reno Tornado that took the three of them away from us. Im thinking of Tim and his talents and of his compassion. Im thinking of Carl, who I always seemed to be joking around with. I can’t even think of him without a smile on his face. Im thinking of Paul, who I wish I could have known better. I’m thinking of their families and their friends… and of Ed and Tony who knew them all much better than I. And I know theyll always be out there with us.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 01:03:44 +0000
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