Tagged: tornadoes

Last month, as we all know, a series of tornadoes devastated areas around Oklahoma City, with dozens killed and hundreds injured over several days of storms.

Among the casualties were three men who were well known in the meteorological community and, indeed, to television audiences: Storm chasers Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras and Carl Young were doing interviews and sending back footage the day of the EF-3 El Reno storm that changed direction on them and killed them.

In light of these tragic events we wonder, just what is a storm chaser anyway?

The tornado systems that roared through Kansas over the weekend had an historic quality to them. An early warning appears to have limited the number of injuries as more than a hundred tornadoes touched down.

Over the weekend, tornadoes ripped through several states, killing at least five people in Oklahoma and causing millions in damage to communities. Among the hardest hit areas was Wichita, Kan., which has seen its share of hardship over the past several years.

"We've got two tornadoes, one in Dallas and one in Arlington. I just watched it plow through a tractor trailer parking lot like it was Godzilla in a temper tantrum."

That's how NPR's Wade Goodwyn just described the images being shown on local television in Texas.

The images from WFAA, the local ABC affiliate in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, show tractor trailers flailing across the air in the middle of a dark debris ball.

Emergency responders say that is was probably a tornado that ripped through the tiny town of Harveyville, Kansas last night.