The Man Who Caught the Storm: The Life of Legendary Tornado Chaser Tim Samaras

What if you could see and capture Mother Nature’s fury in its untamed form? If you could research and aid in the study of said fury? Would you get as close as possible? Would you give your life in such a pursuit? Tim Samaras answered all of those questions in the affirmative. Samaras had been fascinated with the intricacies of how machines operated. His childhood curiosities would follow him to adulthood, leading to a job in Colorado working for the government and studying explosives. The unpredictability of storm formation led to his study of weather and storm-chasing. He would utilize his vacation time to journey to Tornado Alley and chart storm courses. Samaras would develop a device to measure the barometric pressure at the time of a tornado, and the sensor would be successfully deployed in 2003 in South Dakota. The research was valuable but also dangerous. As Tim’s career evolved, the risks became greater. How close is too close?

The Man Who Caught the Storm is an emotionally charged human drama. The tornado is an antagonist who is comparable to any monster of fiction, if not more terrifying. The writer has captured a brilliant man who gave his life in a quixotic journey to tame the most horrific of severe weather. Brantley Hargrove makes his mark with a moving biography of a brave human being.