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Revision as of 22:35, 18 August 2013

This article is about a television series. For the occupation or avocation, see storm chasing.
Storm Chasers
Season 4 title screen shot of Storm Chasers
GenreDocumentary
Reality
Weather
StarringSean Casey
Joshua Wurman
Reed Timmer
Tim Samaras
Tony Laubach
Carl Young
Matt Grzych
Brandon Ivey
Matt Hughes
Joel Taylor
Chris Chittick
Byron Turk
Opening theme"Blaze of Glory" by Bon Jovi (season 3–4)
ComposerDidier Rachou
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons5
No. of episodes40 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersCharlie Corwin
Brian Nashel
Ronan Nagle
Jay Peterson
Production locationUnited States
Running time45 minutes
Production companyOriginal Media
Original release
NetworkDiscovery Channel
ReleaseOctober 17, 2007 (2007-10-17) –
November 10, 2011 (2011-11-10)

Storm Chasers was an American documentary reality television series that premiered on October 17, 2007, on the Discovery Channel. Produced by Original Media, the program follows several teams of storm chasers as they attempt to intercept tornadoes in Tornado Alley in the United States. Season 5 commenced on September 25, 2011. The show was canceled by Discovery Communications on January 21, 2012.This Series was Created by Sean Casey Joshua Wurman Reed Timmer Tim Samaras Tony Laubach Carl Young Matt Grzych Brandon Ivey Matt Hughes Chris Chittick Joel Taylor Byron Turk Charlie Corwin Brian Nashel Ronan Nagle and Jay Peterson[1]

Overview

Storm Chasers was filmed each year in the central United States (an area known as Tornado Alley due to the frequency and severity of tornadoes occurring there) primarily during late spring and early summer, the time of the most frequent tornado activity (though some episodes of recent seasons have also been filmed in the lesser-known Dixie Alley in the southeastern U.S.). Several teams of storm chasers appear in the series. During the 2007 and 2008 seasons Dr. Joshua Wurman, a renowned atmospheric scientist and creator of the Doppler On Wheels (DOW), teamed with documentary IMAX filmmaker Sean Casey. Wurman's goal is to collect tornado data in order to improve warnings systems, while Casey's goal is to film footage inside a tornado using his armored Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV).

An early version of the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV).
The SRV "Dominator", featured in the Discovery Channel series, Storm Chasers.

The TIV crew is led by Casey[2] and Ronan Nagle, driver and executive producer (since 2009), of the series, and Byron Turk, navigator and a shooter/producer for the show. The TIV is outfitted with weather instruments which collect data from approximately 12 feet above ground that, when combined with the DOW radar imagery and the probe data, can help to give Josh a more complete picture of a tornado's structure. Casey produced/directed his second IMAX feature about tornadoes. The first, Forces of Nature, was released in 2003 with a third of the film dedicated to tornadoes, the other two thirds were dedicated to volcanoes and earthquakes. Ronan is an executive producer on the film entitled, Tornado Alley, with the release on March 18, 2011.[3]

Beginning in 2008, the program also began following the team from the website TornadoVideos.Net (TVN) led by meteorology Ph.D. candidate Reed Timmer, Joel Taylor (Driver/Meteorologist) and Chris Chittick (Photographer/Probe Technician). The goal of Reed's small but highly mobile team is to capture "extreme video" as well as scientific data from tornadoes. Timmer's team is known as "Team Dominator" in the show, referring to the name of their own armored chase vehicle, the SRV Dominator.

During the 2009 season, the series also documented the TWISTEX team, led by engineer and veteran storm chaser Tim Samaras, who was killed in 2013 while storm-chasing in Oklahoma along with his son and fellow storm-chaser Carl Young. The main purpose of the TWISTEX team is to deploy their "turtle" probes into the path of tornadoes and deploy mesonet vehicles around the twister. Carl Young helps pilot the Probe vehicle while Tony Laubach drives one of the mesonet vehicles, M3. This new season also brought a change to Casey's team, replacing the TIV with the TIV2 later on in the chasing season. Another addition to Casey's team was the addition of the Doghouse, driven by meteorologists and storm chasers Matt Hughes (died 2010) and Brandon Ivey, who chased as part of the TIV team. The original Scout, PROBE, TWISTEX, and TVN vehicles all carry probes that are designed to be placed in the projected path of tornadoes to collect data and film footage from the lowest portion of the tornado. [citation needed]

Dedications

The episode titled "Dedication" which debuted on November 3, 2010, begins and ends with a dedication to Matt Hughes, who had attempted suicide on May 14, 2010, and died May 26, 2010, at age 30.[4][5] Matt was part of the TIV team, first in the Doghouse and then, in 2010, inside the TIV under Casey's direction. Casey's completed IMAX film Tornado Alley (opened in March 2011) is dedicated to Hughes. The 2010 season is dedicated to Yazoo City, Mississippi as TornadoVideos.Net chased the mile wide tornado and were among the first people on the scene to help.

DOW and Scout were headed by Dr. Wurman in seasons one and two. Wurman and the DOW made only sporadic appearances in seasons three and four, as they had joined the VORTEX2 project, which is not generally followed by Storm Chasers cameras. In season four, Dr. Wurman was also shown to be involved in the funding of Casey's IMAX film, when he addressed Casey about a video showing reckless driving by TIV2. The Scout team of Danny Cheresnick and Aaron Ruppert appeared in the first two seasons as part of the DOW team, but were featured in only one episode in season three. [citation needed]

Chasing groups Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5
Tornado Intercept Vehicle ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N
Doppler on Wheels ☒N ☒N ☒N
TornadoVideos.Net ☒N ☒N ☒N ☒N
TWISTEX ☒N ☒N ☒N

Episodes

Main article: List of Storm Chasers episodes

In other media

Storm Chasers Sean Casey and Reed Timmer appeared on an episode of the MythBusters. They had the TIV 2 and Dominator tested by MythBuster experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman to see if the vehicles could withstand wind speeds of 200 to 250 mph using a high powered jet engine. (See Storm Chasing Myths.)

Cancellation

On January 21, 2012, Tim Samaras and Sean Casey confirmed on their Facebook pages that Storm Chasers was cancelled by Discovery Communications.[6]

After the series

On May 31, 2013, three members of the TWISTEX team, Tim Samaras (aged 55), his son Paul Samaras (24), and Carl Young (45), were killed while chasing an EF-5 tornado near El Reno, Oklahoma.[7] The three were featured in a Storm Chasers special, "Mile Wide Tornado: Oklahoma Disaster", aired on The Discovery Channel on June 5, 2013.[8]

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ "'Storm Chasers' Season Premiere Sunday, September 25 On Discovery". TVbytheNumbers. 2011-08-31. Retrieved 2013-06-02.
  2. ^ Sean C. Casey at IMDb
  3. ^ "Tornado Alley Official Website".
  4. ^ Blaser, Aaron (June 7, 2010). "R.I.P. Matt". Retrieved November 5, 2010.
  5. ^ Grossberg, Josh (November 4, 2010). "Storm Chasers Star Commits Suicide". E! News. Retrieved November 5, 2010.
  6. ^ "Tim Samaras Confirms Storm Chasers Canceled". January 24, 2012. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
  7. ^ "Three storm chasers killed in Oklahoma". CNN. 2013-06-02. Retrieved 2013-06-02.
  8. ^ The Hollywood Reporter: "Discovery Airing Tribute to 'Stormchasers' Stars Killed in Oklahoma Tornado", June 3, 2013
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