3 storm chasers killed in Texas. Are spotters still important for science?
Three storm chasers died on Tuesday when their cars collided at a crossroad in a remote part of northwestern Texas, as they pursued a tornado that had triggered warnings from the National Weather Service in Lubbock.聽
Kelley Williamson and Randy Yarnall, traveling together in one of the cars, were Cassville, Mo.-based contractors for The Weather Channel and stars of that network鈥檚 show聽鈥淪torm Wranglers鈥� who often aired live streams of storms as they tracked them. In the other car was Corbin Jaeger, of Peoria, Ariz., who had documented storms since 2014 for the site MadWx, which features live streams and other media of tornadoes.
Investigators told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal they believed the black Suburban carrying Mr. Williamson and Mr. Yarnall with the Jeep piloted by Mr. Jaeger, at the intersection outside of the town of Spur, in Dickens County. All three were killed on impact.
In a statement, the Weather Channel expressed regret for the deaths of Williamson and Yarnall, calling them聽鈥溾��
鈥淲e are saddened by this loss and our deepest sympathies go out to the families and loved ones of all involved,鈥� it said.
The tragedy is likely to turn a light back onto the dangers inherent to storm chasing 鈥撀燼 practice that has become associated, in recent decades, with thrill-seekers聽鈥撀燼nd perhaps raise questions about the value of spotting for sport. Yet some storm chasers say the practice retains real value for science and the public alike, both as a real-time aid for storm authorities and a longer-term source for storm data.
Storm spotting as a public service in the United States originated during World War II, when the military began collaborating with the Weather Bureau to set up volunteer networks near potentially vulnerable military sites, like defense installations and ammunition dumps, . And with the proliferation of film and other media, volunteer spotting聽鈥撀爀specially for tornadoes聽鈥� blossomed.
Then came聽鈥淭wister.鈥�
The 1996 blockbuster film was based partly on the pioneering VORTEX projects of 1994 and 1995 that gathered data on supercells (the powerful and long-lasting thunderstorms sometimes associated with tornadoes) and gave a lift to the National Weather Service鈥檚 tornado-warning system, according to OurAmazingPlanet. The movie鈥檚 success generated a flood of interest in meteorology, with enrollments ballooning at newly created university departments and tour guides signing up adrenaline-junkie clients. But some scientists lamented the rise of a post-鈥淭wister鈥澛燾ulture of storm chasing that elevated sensationalism over safety.
"The storm-chase culture ,鈥� wrote John Knox, atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Georgia, in a 2013 USA Today editorial.聽
"No more shell-game arguments of 'It's the bad chasers who are to blame.' Even the best admit that they get too close sometimes," he added.
"No more shifting rationales for storm chasing, from聽scientific research聽(where are the data sets?) to聽increased warning times (how much do chasers add to warning times 鈥撀爓here's the peer-reviewed study?) to聽lives saved聽(how many chasers are trained and up-to-date in CPR and first aid?) to educational benefit (prove it with peer-reviewed educational research)."
Still, chasers鈥� deaths are rare. The three killed in Tuesday's car crash were the first fatalities since in 2013, when an amateur and three scientists were killed in Oklahoma.
And some scientists are more positive about the amateurs.
Howard Bluestein, a meteorologist at the University of Oklahoma, says he and a National Science Foundation-funded group of students bring Doppler radars into the field聽鈥渢o catch tornadoes in the act of forming, to learn about why some storms produce tornadoes and some don鈥檛,鈥� and to gather information on tornadoes鈥櫬爏tructures.聽
"Some days when we鈥檙e out there, we have trouble finding a parking spot for our truck. That鈥檚 very annoying,鈥澛爃e tells 海角大神. And some chasers, he says, do drive carelessly.聽But amateurs who text or call into the National Weather Service when they see a tornado often give them a leg up on issuing warnings.
鈥淲arning based on radar is not 100 percent foolproof, so we need to have someone there seeing what鈥檚 happening,鈥澛爃e says.聽
Scientists have a growing toolkit at their disposal: Doppler radar shows them where there might be a vortex and how a tornado is moving, and computer models are increasingly accurate in predicting the location of a potential tornado-producing storm. And in situ readings of ground temperatures taken by Dr. Bluestein and other meteorologists can help predict whether a twister will make an appearance. But the footage and photographs fished up from by his students, he tells the Monitor, can act as a visual complement to their measurements.
鈥淧eople out doing scientific research can鈥檛 be everywhere at the same time,鈥澛爃e says. "When there are a lot of people out there, the probability is high that someone will actually get photos of the phenomenon, and you can compare what chasers are seeing with what you're seeing on Doppler radar."
