īeginning in 1998, Samaras founded and co-produced (with Roger Hill) the National Storm Chasers Convention, an annual event held near Denver and attended by hundreds of chasers from around the world. His colleagues considered him to be one of the most careful chasers in the business. In total, he tracked down more than 125 tornadoes during his career. When asked, Samaras said that the most dangerous part about following tornadoes is not the actual storms themselves, but rather the road hazards encountered along the way. Samaras and his team logged over 35,000 miles (56,000 km) of driving during the two peak months of tornado season each year. Samaras held a patent, "Thermal imaging system for internal combustion engines", with Jon M. A patent was pending for instrumentation measuring winds in 3D. Samaras' aerodynamic probes were a breakthrough design for survivability inside tornadoes. Samaras later described the tornado as the most memorable of his career. The measurement is also the lowest pressure, 850 hectopascals (25.10 inHg), ever recorded at Earth's surface when adjusted for elevation. The probe was dropped in front of the oncoming tornado a mere 82 seconds before it hit. The accomplishment is listed in the Guinness World Records as "greatest pressure drop measured in a tornado". With one such in-situ probe, he captured the largest drop in atmospheric pressure, 100 hPa ( mb) in less than one minute, ever recorded, when an F4 tornado struck one of several probes placed near Manchester, South Dakota, on June 24, 2003. Samaras designed and built his own weather probes, and deployed them in the path of tornadoes in order to gain scientific insight into the inner workings of a tornado. His work was funded in large part by the National Geographic Society (NGS), which awarded him 18 grants for his field work. Samaras was the founder of a field research team called Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in Tornadoes EXperiment ( TWISTEX), which sought to better understand tornadoes. He was an avid amateur astronomer and also interested in electronics and inventions. Samaras also shot for art and for pleasure. An accomplished photographer and videographer, he also used photogrammetry, with some footage derived from cameras in probes shooting from within tornadoes. In addition to tornadoes, he was interested in all aspects of convective storms, with particular research focus on lightning, for which he utilized cameras shooting up to 1.4 million fps. He also worked at National Technical Systems and Hyperion Technology Group. His research included high-speed photography, such as on ballistics. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recognized him for his investigations of the TWA Flight 800 crash. Samaras became a prominent engineer at Applied Research Associates, initially focusing on blast testing and airline crash investigations. He obtained a Pentagon security clearance by 20, testing and building weapons systems. Immediately out of high school and without a résumé, he was hired as a walk-in at the University of Denver Research Institute. At 16, he was a radio technician and was service shop foreman at 17. He communicated by amateur radio when chasing storms and was also a storm spotter, reporting sightings of hazardous weather. As an adult he held an Amateur Extra Class license, the highest amateur radio class issued in the United States, and was proficient in Morse code.
He became an amateur radio operator at age 12 and built transmitters using old television sets. Samaras was an autodidact who never received a college degree. In his twenties, he began to chase storms "not for the thrill, but the science." He would continue this pursuit until his untimely death in 2013. Samaras attended Lasley Elementary and O'Connell Junior High in Lakewood, before graduating from Alameda International Junior/Senior High School in 1976. "When the tornado appeared", he recalled, "I was hooked!" His mother talked him into watching an annual television broadcast of The Wizard of Oz at age six. Margaret was born in 1929 and died in 1996. Tim assisted in the photography and shop work. Paul (1925–2005) was a photographer and model airplane distributor who was an Army projectionist in WWII. Samaras was born November 12, 1957, in Lakewood, Colorado, to Paul T. Timothy Michael Samaras (November 12, 1957 – May 31, 2013) was an American engineer and storm chaser best known for his field research on tornadoes and time on the Discovery Channel show, Storm Chasers.
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