The Death of Tim Samaras, Lightning Chaser

A small tornado in Kansas, photographed during Tim Samaras's lightning expedition in August 2009. Photo by George Johnson. It was a shock this morning to learn from an editor at National Geographic that Tim Samaras had been killed by a tornado in Oklahoma. Also dead were Tim's son, Paul, and Carl Young, who had long been a member of the team. I was with them all at various times while gathering information for a story on Samaras's efforts to capture the fastest video ever taken of lightning. Like tornado chasing that too was a dangerous undertaking. But as others who knew him have pointed out, Samaras was not simply a thrill seeker. He loved to come as close as possible to extreme weather, but the risks he took were calculated, educated ones. His overriding goal was to gather information -- in the form of imagery and other data -- that ...