texas storm chaser crash
Storm chasers killed chasing tornado
00:53 - Source: CNN

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Data collected by storm chasers can help increase warning times for tornadoes

But professional researchers say amateurs are making their jobs more dangerous

CNN  — 

No matter how fortified their SUVs are or how many years of experience they have, storm chasers aren’t immune from tragedy.

The deaths of three storm chasers Tuesday in Texas proved that point.

Kelley Gene Williamson, 57, and Randall Delane Yarnall, 55, were in hot pursuit of a tornado when their Suburban crashed with the Jeep of another storm chaser, Corbin Lee Jaeger, 25.

“It hurts so bad losing our best friends this way,” said Billy Wade, a Missouri-based storm chaser who knew all three men.

Billy Wade, left, and Kelley Williamson chased a storm in 2015. Williamson died in a car crash Tuesday.

“All of us chasers are really close. It’s like a family.”

But that family has grown to include not just researchers gathering valuable information for the public but also thrill seekers who put themselves and others at risk.

The need for (safe) storm chasers

Experts say storm chasers provide valuable research for the government and help give increased warning times to residents near a tornado’s path.

In the early days of storm research, forecasters had no lead time to warn people that a tornado was approaching. But storm chasers can place probes and sensors directly in a tornado’s path, picking up data that can’t be revealed from afar.

Now residents can get an average lead time of 13 minutes before a tornado comes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But professional researchers say amateur chasers are making their jobs more dangerous.

Amateurs – not tornadoes – frighten longtime chaser

Mike Eilts started chasing storms more than two decades ago. Back then, most people driving toward tornadoes were trained scientists, he said.

Eilts, who worked for the National Severe Storms Laboratory, remembered a close call when he sped away from a menacing tornado – straight toward a dead end.

Opinion: Why we chase storms

“The decision was either to get out of the car and jump in the farmer’s yard,” he said, “or to try and beat it.”

His team chose the latter. They floored it and barely escaped.

Now, when he’s observing storms, a different sort of sight makes Eilts turn around and head home.

“I call it ‘tornado zoo.’ They think they can just drive up like it’s a lion on the other side of the cage,” he says. “They take a picture or video of it, not thinking that the whole thing can expand in literally seconds, a new suction spot can come out, and you have no time to react to that kind of thing.”

Martin Lisius, who’s been chasing storms since 1987, calls them the “children of ‘Twister.’”

“They’re acting like they’re in a movie,” he says.

When risky behavior becomes a tragedy

Chuck Doswell, one of the original storm chasers from the 1970s, said any unnecessary cars on the road can endanger everyone.

“There can be no doubt that simply being on the highways is a dangerous thing,” Doswell wrote in an essay that many consider the premiere manuscript on storm-chasing etiquette.

He acknowledged that storm chasers “do several things that put us at risk.”

“We often drive with less than 100% of our attention on the very important task of driving, we’re prone to exceed the posted speed limits, we hurtle down rain- and possibly hail-covered highways, we make sudden stops, turns, and starts without much warning,” Doswell said.

“Unfortunately, risky behavior, repeated often enough, can become a tragedy.”

Fame and fortune motivate some

Lisius said some chasers seem to be motivated by fame, fortune or the hope that their video can land on television.

For years CNN and other national television news networks have purchased tornado videos shot by freelance storm chasers. Traditionally the fees are in the hundreds of dollars, but could be more than $1,000 for editorially important images.

Eilts says he worries that one of these days, a storm will strike while thousands of people are stuck in traffic jams caused by storm gawkers. Already, he says, professionals have a harder time collecting data, and emergency responders struggle to reach areas that are in danger.

“I think it causes a lot of problems for scientists that are trying to do their jobs, for scientists that are trying to get sensors in the right place,” he says. “Now they’re worried about, ‘How do you stay out of the parking lot of storm chasers and stay safe?’”

Tornado tourism

When Lisius was a kid, he won a prize for a science fair project on thunderstorms and snapped photos of lightning from the kitchen window of his family’s north Texas home. Now he runs Tempest Tours, a company that offers storm-chasing expeditions for tourists – and a chance to photograph storms from a much closer vantage point.

“It’s like a cruise,” he said. “We have a schedule. We have a departure and return. We have a port city, which we call our base city.”

These port cities don’t have ocean views. Arlington, Texas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Denver, Colorado; and Phoenix, Arizona are among the spots where Tempest Tours take off.

But Lisius said he’s not in the business of endangering tourists.

“It’s all about education and teaching them about the atmosphere,” he says. “It’s not a thrill seeking tour. That’s not us.”

“We left. It was not a close call because we took quick action to avoid a close call,” he says. “It’s what we do on a regular basis.”

“Our mission is to teach people about severe weather, and we can get close enough to a tornado to see it and take good pictures of it, but certainly we don’t have to get in the path,” he says.

Storm chaser deaths are rare

The growing number of amateurs makes storm chasing riskier, but deaths are still rare, CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said.

“It’s actually a miracle that it doesn’t happen more,” said Miller, himself a longtime chaser. “It’s a ton of people distracted driving, paying attention to dozens of other things and not the road.”

Before the deaths of three this week in Texas, Miller said the only other known instance of storm chaser fatalities came in 2013.

That year, Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras and Carl Young died chasing a storm in the Oklahoma City area.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it appears to be the first time researchers intercepting a storm’s path have been killed.

“Our whole country’s built upon research and development and enhancement. Ultimately if we can save 100 lives more every year because we have better tornado warnings, that’s worth it,” he says. “Being in the field is an important part of that research. That has to go on.”

“It really hurts. All of us chasers are really close,” Wade said.

Wade said he met the trio in Joplin, Missouri, where a tornado killed 160 people in 2011. They were there to pay their respects at an anniversary to remember the victims.

Wade grew so close to Williamson that he asked him to be a groomsman for his upcoming wedding.

“I know he will still be at my wedding in spirit,” Wade said.

Shortly after his friends’ deaths, Wade said he would honor their memories – by going on a storm chase.

CNN’s Judson Jones and Amanda Jackson contributed to this report.