Colorado storm chaser Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras, and longtime chase partner Carl Young were killed in the EF-3 tornado that tore through El Reno, Oklahoma Friday.
Tim and Paul were both born and raised in Lakewood, Colo. but most recently were living in Bennett. Tim is survived by his wife, Kathy.
Tim Samaras was considered a leader in storm chasing expertise and tornado research and worked with 7NEWS, National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, Boeing, and the federal government.
Samaras and his team starred in the Discovery Channel's "Storm Chasers" for three years before the show was canceled in 2012.
A family member posted this statement on Tim Samaras' Facebook page at 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning:
"I'm Jim Samaras - Tim Samaras's brother. Thank you to everyone for the condolences. It truly is sad that we lost my great brother Tim and his great son, Paul. Our hearts also go out to the Carl Young family as well as they are feeling the same feelings we are today. They all unfortunately passed away but doing what they LOVED. Chasing Tornado's. I look at it that he is in the 'big tornado in the sky...' We (the family) will keep folks aware of what the funeral estrangements are, but please in the meantime keep Tim and Paul in your thoughts and prayers."
Tim Samaras was 55 and his son Paul was 24. Carl Young was 45.
"Carl and Tim were the best of friends," and chased many times, Jim Samaras said.
Carl Young’s father, Bob Young, told CNN his son always wanted to be a meteorologist.
Tim founded TWISTEX (Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in Tornadoes EXperiment) to pursue tornadoes and advance the research and warning available to the public.
"Tim Samaras has led, designed, and fielded complex instrumentation research efforts over the past 30 years," the TWISTEX website says.
He was one of the safest in the storm chasing community, and he did it not for just the thrill but the research, friends said.
--Reaction from friends and colleagues--
The deaths of the three men have stunned the storm chasing and weather science community.
"I have known Tim for over 20 years, he was the most brilliant and most careful severe weather researcher of them all. Tim was not a cowboy, he was as cautious as possible about his approach to studying these dangerous storms," said Mike Nelson, 7NEWS Chief Meteorologist, who has worked with Tim in a variety of weather and science projects.
"Tim and Paul were really good people and it was important to them that they were not thought of as simply storm chasers, but as scientist hoping to help get data to understand tornadic activity. They helped people build better constructed buildings among other things," said Brad Boggot, a 7NEWS photojournalist who traveled with Tim and Paul during severe weather season several years ago.
"We are deeply saddened by the loss of Tim Samaras and his son. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family." Discovery Channel Spokesperson.
Tim Samaras has been following his passion for storm chasing for 30 years.
"It all started when I was about six years old and saw that fantastic tornado in The Wizard of Oz," Samaras told National Geographic.
Samaras was able to mix his passion with his career as an engineer. He has successfully gathered scientific measurements from inside of tornadoes and holds the world record for measuring the lowest barometric pressure drop (100 millibars) inside of a tornado that destroyed the town of Manchester South Dakota on June 24, 2003.
Samaras has also built a special probe with cameras that are able to look inside of a tornado safely. He successfully captured this in Storm Lake, Iowa on June 11, 2004.
He always reminded friends and fellow chasers to stay safe.
His last Tweet on Friday said, "Dangerous day ahead for OK--stay weather savvy!"
The camera equipment Tim and his time were using at the time of their fatal run-in with the tornado is missing, according to a fellow storm chaser. "The family and overall scientific community would like it recovered to see what happened and what went wrong. If you come across camera equipment in the tornado debris, please let authorities know."
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