Tim Samaras Storm Chaser Victim of OKC Tornado--Yellow Circle Up in the Caribbean ---

The yellow circle, which is sort of the merging of the remnants of Barbara and the murky, moist area of tropical convection that was in the Caribbean, has a 10% chance of developing and moving north towards land later in the week.


The GFS model forms something . . . moves it towards Florida . . . and then sort of loses it. When you have you have models that do that off and on you wait for the next model run and  . . . you wait for the storm to form. After it forms, if it forms... then you can see what is what better. Until then we are playing "what if" vs "maybe" and there IS a big difference.

http://moe.met.fsu.edu/cgi-bin/gfstc2.cgi?time=2013060206&field=Sea+Level+Pressure&hour=Animation

If it gets a name or doesn't get a name it spells rain for Florida..





Nothing may come of this but rain, however it is worth watching as the models keep playing with it and it is most definitely there even if nothing more than a blob of convection. Note the strong push to the left in the air currents above the area.



If a high builds a lot, maybe.  For now it blows up and dies down and seems part of some sort of semi permanent trough that has been over the area for the last several days if not the last week.

In other news.  Tim Samaras was killed along on Friday while chasing the tornado in Oklahoma. It's a very big blow for the general family of storm chasers as well as his wife and family. His son Paul was killed with him as well as another crew member. This was not so much about chasing the storm as much as the tragedy that befell other victims of the Friday's Tornado Outbreak as well as well as the team from TWC that included Mike Bettes. There was one road in and one road out and everyone was stuck like sitting ducks on the highway. It's not always like the movies where you drive off of the road and through the cornfield; sometimes you can and sometimes you can't.

http://www.examiner.com/article/discovery-channel-s-storm-chaser-tim-samaras-killed-el-reno-tornado

It's sad, easy to say "he died what he loved doing" but it's a loss and it doesn't cut the mustard to make anyone feel better. Maybe a little better that he LIVED his life doing what he loved and his knowledge of meteorology and his ability to explain it as well as to photograph it and record helped all of us.

Right now I want to talk about Tim and not Andrea. Might talk on both more in a later post but for now it's worth noting his passing and more so his incredible life.



And, Tim did love what he did... that simple. One of his recent tweets and I think that says it all.

Tim Samaras ‏@Tim_Samaras26 May

Off to KS to chase lightning--with tornadoes on the side...gawd I love my job.. pic.twitter.com/LqoqNJjUDH

The last picture he posted before the chase on Friday.

Tim Samaras ‏@Tim_Samaras31 May

Storms now initiating south of Watonga along triple point. Dangerous day ahead for OK--stay weather savvy! t.co/B8ddJcDViI

When you have few roads and traffic everywhere, a mother and her baby were killed in the storm on Friday. It was heartbreaking and as a person note I was talking a friend Friday as it was happening, very scary... a large cell with multiple vortexes that went down fast to the ground, spun up again, reformed somewhere else and such cells are hard to track and almost impossible to predict. It was huge, really huge and and nebulous.. tricky chasing and even scarier for those with little knowledge of the dynamics of tornadoes. Sirens blaring on and off and the illusion of the storm passing as it show down another funnel cloud near by ...which is very different than a big wedge tornado that travels slowly down one path and then whoosh is gone as fast as it formed.

My deepest sympathy to his family and friends and it hovers over me a sense of uneasy going into the Hurricane Season. Yes, the car that Mike Bettes was in made mistakes and it was not something like the "dominator" which was made to ride through a tornado. Yesterday everyone lost contact with him and people were scared... heart in their throats type of scared. And, Mike Bettes got lucky and Tim and his son Paul and his friend Carl Young were not as lucky. Lucky to love weather... to live it chasing and learning more about it but not so lucky on Friday.

It was a scary day on Friday, scarier in ways because there was no escape for many stuck in rush hour traffic on I40 which is the main artery through the OKC area. And, it was one scary, multiple vortex tornado.

And, again I would take my chances with a hurricane anytime.  Yes, 3 hours of a Category 5 grinding it's way across Miami would not be good... but at least there is the illusion of the ability to prepare and be aware of where to be or where to not me. You can evacuate for a hurricane better than you can a sudden, vicious pop up F3 Tornado.

The video below shows Tim talking on the new satellite ability to see Twisters form which gives more people the chance to survive a tornado.

And, again I will link you to my last post... are you REALLY ready for a Hurricane? Think again, a lot of storm chasers thought they were ready for Friday's possible outbreak...they weren't. Sometimes, no one is really ready for wicked weather!

Besos Bobbi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZXJsuuUQEk0