By Paul M. Banks

With a deadly earthquake in China, the alarmingly record setting pace of tornadoes in America and close to 80,000 dead from a Burma cyclone, natural disasters have dominated the headlines lately. On Saturday night, tornadoes ripped through Madison and Milwaukee in Wisconsin and Chicago’s south suburbs. The most violent storms passed through SICA, IL as six twisters were confirmed touching down. A week ago, the neighboring state of Indiana was hit. Although this isn’t a sports article, the subject matter hit home with much of The Sports Bank.net’s core audience this past weekend. In the midst of prime tornado season, I felt a conversation I had with a tornado chaser, an “extreme sport” in the highest capacity, was very much appropriate.

“Tornadoes: A Look Inside Deadly Winds” is likely to be the most popular segment of a new Field Museum of Natural History exhibition entitled Nature Unleashed: Inside Natural Disasters. It explores Mother Nature’s most violent mood swings through state-of-the-art animations, large striking images, and cultural artifacts from around the world. The exhibit conveys the dynamic relationship we have with the Earth and its climate in crisis. In recent years, scientists have studied the correlations between global warming and weather-related natural disasters. “Nature Unleashed” looks at how increasingly warm air and sea temperatures may have the potential to cause stronger storms.

It features the work of “storm chaser” Tim Samaras, a “rock star” among tornado researchers, who has been featured on National Geographic. Samaras studies tornadoes by putting himself in their paths and then deploying a custom-made data-collecting and camera filled probe. Thrilling audio and video footage provided by Samaras is projected “in the round” to give visitors the opportunity to step into the path of an oncoming tornado; a highlight of the exhibition. Of all the scientists and guests attending the media preview, he was the one attracting the most attention by far. “If there’s one myth I would like to dispel, it’s the idea that a powerful tornado couldn’t hit Chicago. There’s no reason it wouldn’t happen if the proper atmospheric and meteorological conditions came together,” Samaras told me at the media preview. All those ideas about the tall buildings and close proximity to a large body of water holding off twisters are useless. “There have been tornadoes in every state and they can occur year round; we’ve had a few in January recently,” Samaras said. He also told me about all of the flaws he saw in the 1996 Helen Hunt/Bill Paxton film “Twister,” when he attended the premiere. (So a dozen different super-cells with EF4s and EF5s don’t really often occur within driving distance of each other ALL on the same day? Twisters don’t really make animal growling noises? Man, what a piece of crap that movie was! It did make a lot of scrilla even though it offered nothing but special effects. I can only imagine how many frustrating mistakes Samaras found in it!)

Cool video to check out of Samaras’ experience

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/environment/environment-natural-disasters/tornadoes/tornado-samaras.html

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/explorers/tim-samaras.html

I also asked him about Iowa State University’s choosing a cyclone as their mascot and how that’s inaccurate, given that cyclones only occur within tropical regions. He told me that ISU is a fantastic research institution on this topic and that he doesn’t know why they chose the mascot. However, I did not tell him that I wore #5 when I played high school football because my game was so strong it was a force of nature! Strongest type of tornadoes- EF5! And my speed in the open field (before all the knee injuries and operations of course) was reminiscent of the type of wind velocity you would find in these types of storms.

Tornado Alley, an area spanning nine states (including two that border Illinois) in the center of the country is the most active tornado region in the world; 75% of the planet’s twisters touchdown in the region. The tornado is truly an All-American disaster. One of the worst tornadoes in modern history occurred within this area (Greensburg, Kansas) on May 4, 2007. The tornado reached estimated winds of 205 miles an hour, making it an EF5 Tornado, the strongest classification possible. (EF stands for “Enhanced Fujita” named after Ted Fujita, a famed University of Chicago storm researcher.) Only ten lives were lost despite 95% of the town’s structures being destroyed. In the crisis of devastation, resilient citizens of Greensburg have discovered a new opportunity. Shortly after the tornado, city officials and citizens explored the possibilities of rebuilding their city according to the eco-friendly guidelines of sustainability and renewable energy efficiency. Now because anything related to tornadoes, as a rule must reference the Wizard of Oz, the Field exhibition noted why this classic story is set in Kansas; it is the state smack dab in the heart of Tornado Alley. As deadly twisters touched down in Tinley Park this past weekend, it reminds me of the numerous tornado sirens that would fill the air from March to May during my halcyon days at the University of Illinois, and that the rival of the junior high I attended (Tinley Central) had Twisters as their mascot. “Weather” global warming is completely to blame for all the rapid proliferation of storms, as well as the increasing intensity of these storms is still being researched by scientists. However, we Midwesterners are all going to have accept that the warning sirens are going to be going off more often each year.

Warm moist air comes off the Gulf of Mexico, meeting dry air from Mexico and cool dry air from the Rockies in “Tornado Alley.” The three forces of nature converge to produce some of the world’s most violent weather.

Samaras’s Homepage http://thunderchase.com/

To order his DVD
http://thunderchase.com/content/view/15/33/

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