I've always been interested in storms and how they develop and grow and die out and the great power they hold over us. Because of this, I was so excited to learn more about the history of the science and research on this specific branch of meteorology.

I had no idea who Tim Samaras was before picking this book up. I enjoyed the narrative how his life and how his interest in storms became an obsession in storm chasing. I now want to go watch old episodes of Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers.

There were some technical aspects of tornados and their development/statistics that I didn't fully understand, which made some a few very specific parts difficult for me to get through but I left this book with a better understanding and awe of Mother Nature and those who put themselves in dangerous positions to help our society better understand how to keep more people safe from these events.

This narrative of Tim's life was refreshing in that the science is balanced with the bravery and dedication of smart chasers instead of glorifying amateur tornado chasers and the danger. It shows the balance between adrenaline and safety. The stories included are thorough and interesting and the narrative flows from one to the next without feeling disjointed or jumpy.

This book is just absolutely fantastic. I've always been fascinated by weather, specifically storms. I was a fan of Tim Samaras and was devastated when I learned of his death. When I learned that a book would be written about his life and his work, I was incredibly eager to get my hands on it.

Mr. Hargrove, you did a beautiful job on this one. I cannot imagine another person being better suited to cover the life and adventures of Tim Samaras. He aptly covered the science behind storm chasing, as well as capturing Tim's personality and love of weather, adventure, and family. From the early days as a child fascinated by the weather, to the later days chasing storms with his own son, this was just an incredible story, covered in the most perfect way. I'm eager to find our what Brantley Hargrove will cover next.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

I always enjoyed the Discovery show, Storm Chasers. When I was offered the opportunity to read The Man Who Caught the Storm through NetGalley, I was genuinely excited! I am fascinated by tornadoes and those who chase them, get close and personal and put their lives in danger all for the thrill and dedication to science. This book was fascinating! I found myself constantly googling various events so I could see the pictures of the destruction for myself. I learned so much that I was completely unaware of. I also really enjoyed hearing the back story on how Tim Samaras grew up, opted out of college, became a successful engineer and began consistently chasing tornadoes. I had already loved Tim and his team from watching the show, so it was pretty easy for me to get swept up in this book and stay engaged. The author, Brantley Hargrove, clearly did a lot of research, tells a compelling true life story and one that is easy to comprehend without using over the top technicalities. I would think Tim Samaras would be proud! I thoroughly enjoyed it and appreciated being sent this book for my review.

The Man Who Caught the Storm: The Life Of Legendary Tornado Catcher Tim Samaras by Brantley Hargrove was a beautifully written biography that I highly recommend. It is particularly impressive when one reads that is the first book by Hargrove ( who has written for magazines in the past).

I will let his words introducing the subject of the biography speak for themselves:

“The tornado is one of the only real dragons the modern world has left. And the only way to dispel the frightening unknown is for someone to steal away with its secrets. If we are to glimpse what lies at the heart of one of the planet’s greatest mysteries, someone must first journey to a place few have witnessed and live to tell about. The task requires invention, a tolerance for danger, and an unusual breed of talented tinkerer.

We know this because there once was such a man. He got closer than anyone before or since, committing his life with fanatical devotion to the chase and a search for answers.

He wasn’t the decorated expert you’d expect. He wasn’t an eminent scientist with a fine academic pedigree or the resources of a major research institute. For the most part, he was just a regular guy—with a dream, an uncommon set of skills, and an insatiable appetite for tracking down extreme storms. This man set out on a mission he’d been told was highly inadvisable, if not completely suicidal. To the shock of the scientific community, he pulled it off. He swept the shroud aside, if only briefly, and showed us all something we’d never before seen—the heart of the tornado.”

This book was fascinating and well documented and researched. I learned a lot about tornadoes, science, and tornado chasers without being bored in the process. If this topic interests you, this is a five star read. Excellent writing!

Since I am a Texan, I will close by quoting some sections about a portion of Texas that is close to me:

“PROLOGUE
MAY 27, 1997

THE FIRE DEPARTMENT’S siren sounded over Jarrell, Texas, just after 3:30 p.m.—a shrill, oscillating note, like an air-raid alarm, swelling and fading and swelling again. It filled every street and pressed in through the windows of every house in the little Czech farming town some forty-five minutes north of Austin. The siren was only ever used to call volunteers to the station, but anyone who had been paying attention that afternoon knew this time was different. They had ten minutes, maybe twelve at the outside.

The TV meteorologists were already tracking the tornado near Prairie Dell, four miles to the north of Jarrell. It writhed like a coach-whip snake at first, its thin form roping liquidly over prime farmland, where the Hill Country gives way to Blackland Prairie. For a time it seemed to track neither north nor south, but to trace a languid orbit in place.

Then came the shift.

The graceful ribbon was suddenly gone, replaced by this other thing—an inchoate, gray miasma, not so much a tornado as a wall of smoke, leaching up out of the earth. The twister was on the move now, bearing southwest on a collision course with Jarrell.

When it finally appeared on the northern horizon at about 3:40 p.m., it was a sight townspeople would resummon in their dreams for years to come. Bristling with debris and blackened with rich soil scoured from the fields, it looked ancient and immutable, its sooty wings spread wide. What it looked like was the end of the world.

The tornado was as wide as thirteen football fields laid end to end. Little Jarrell could have disappeared inside it, swallowed and gone. But the town that day was largely spared. The darkness passed to the west, away from the most densely populated parts of town. The trouble was, there were still people in its path, and more than usual on a Tuesday afternoon. School had let out for summer on the Friday before.”

Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader’s Copy of this stellar biography and for allowing me to review it.

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. This book was absolutely amazing! I learned so much! Tim was an amazing man! He pushed the envelope so much in tornado research. We gained so much knowledge because of him. He was a family man, a man who had no formal training, but a thirst for knowledge and a brain that just would not quit. This book is filled with so much great knowledge and if you are at all interested in storms, then you should definitely read this one!

4.5 courageous stars

Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge. (Stephen Hawking)

Where would we be without the men and women who went ahead no matter the risks, and moved forward to understand our world better and the forces that swirl within it?

Tim Samaras was not your typical scientist/engineer. He received no formal education in his field, no college or advanced degrees and yet this man through his brilliance and obsession with tornadoes made strides that advanced the study of these violent storms that even today one marvels at. How to understand these storms? There was a dearth of information about these storms and Tim's fascination with them made him a foremost authority in the emerging field of how these storms operate.

It was well known that these storms brought destruction, loss of property, and to some death. Tim and his fellow storm chasers went after these storms patrolling the areas like Tornado Alley in search of the whys and wherefores. He invented and conceptualized equipment that would eventually be able to withstand being inside this storm and was able through his efforts to forward the knowledge of this, one of the last few mysteries of the modern world.

Tim chased the storms and had what some might consider to be an obsession. He followed these storms eventually losing his life as well as the life of his son and friend in one of these horrendous acts of nature.

To Tim and others like him, we owe debts of both gratitude and thanks for the knowledge he provided. Today thanks to Tim, scientists know so much more and perhaps someday the mysteries of a tornado will be mysteries no longer.

Tim Samaras was a storm chaser: a person who chases intense weather conditions for a variety of reasons, whether that be professional or recreational. For Samaras, it was a bit of both: a love of tornadoes turned to sponsored trips trying to set probes in the path of tornadoes to find out what happened in the heart of the vortex. In this well-researched biography, we find out not only about Samaras' life, but about tornadoes, the storm chasing community at large, and the dangers and high-points the job brings.

This is author Brant Hargrove's first book, an impressive feat considering the ability with which the story is not only woven but researched. Hargrove covers Samaras' entire life, from his start as a child taking apart electronics to his entry into meteorologic circles to becoming one of the most highly regarded tornado experts, and a self-taught engineer who got the data no one else was able to.

Near the midway point, I googled Tim's name to get an idea of what he looked like (there were several descriptions of him up until that point, but I am notoriously bad at internalizing descriptions on paper), and immediately learned more than I bargained for.

Spoilers from here till the end!!!
It was on this google search that I saw images that explained that Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and his co-worker Carl Young were killed while chasing a 2013 Oklahoma Tornado which took 8 lives and became the largest recorded tornado in history. Once I learned this, the subsequent chapters, each covering a year in Tim's life, felt like a ticking clock. There were several passages that, knowing the end, really leaned on dramatic irony pretty hard.



While I personally had a hard time envisioning some of the 'action' scenes, it helped to look up videos of the storms. I was looking for episodes of Storm Chasers, and found this episode from the National Geographic channel on the 2013 El Reno tornado. It really helped to understand not only the path of the storm (I'm a very visual person, so reading about directional changes didn't help much), but also gave a face to the chasers I'd seen described on the pages of the book.

If you've ever found yourself interested in storms, or are at least curious about the type of person who would dedicate their lives to chasing them, definitely check this book. Not only does it cover both subjects thoroughly and in an interesting manner, it gives an inside look to arguably one of the most influential figures in the storm chasing community and whose contributions helped understand a natural phenomena better than we ever had before.


The Man Who Caught the Storm is available everywhere books are sold.

Tim Samaras had no college education, no experience, only an incredible passion for storms, tornadoes in particular, and a desire to figure out how they worked. With the same determination he had growing up taking apart and rebuilding and fixing radios and pretty much anything else that his father could bring him home, he is a self-educated engineer....and the first man to invent what he called a "turtle", the HITPR (Hardened In-situ Tornado Pressure Recorders), giving Tim and the world the first glimpse inside a tornado.
Tim and his team, TWISTEX, chase storms throughout the country, gathering data on what goes on inside the tornado.....barometric pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind speed.....all while firmly remaining on the ground even as houses and farm land is sucked into the vortex. He follows the HITPR with the TOWER, and even more technologically advanced in situ probe. As Tim and the TWISTEX teams popularity grows, earning further acclaim through the television series "Storm Chasers" which ran for three seasons before it's popularity declined.
May 26, 2013, Tim and his son Paul say goodbye to Tim's wife (and Paul's mother) Kathy, for the last time. On May 31, Tim, Paul and chaser Carl Young, were killed when the Chevy Cobalt they were riding in was overtaken by a tornado that Doppler imaging indicated was 2.5 miles, the widest ever documented. The main funnel included a number of smaller tornadoes, some moving at speeds of 177 mph. The chasers likely were not even aware that they were in danger from the smaller tornadoes. They are the first three chasers ever to be killed in a tornado. Tim's body is found, still seat-belted in the vehicle which has been collapsed to nearly hip-height. Carl is found about 500 yards to the west. Paul is not found until the next morning.
The science is incredible, the technology created by a man with no education astonishing, the passion for his work inspiring. But you will still feel sadness that this ending could not be rewritten. That Tim could have continued to chase his storms. An excellent and informative read.

This was an amazing read. The life of Tim and the other storm chasers was so fascinating. you think they have to be crazy to want to chase tornados but then you realize the science that they are unlocking that could, in the end, save lives. This book just isnt for weather fans but anyone who wants a gripping story of a sometimes complicated man.

Enjoyed this true story, captivating the danger these people put themselves in.

I LOVED this book!! I learned so much and It was so interesting. It was well written, well researched,and not over technical. I remember when this event happened and was saddened by it. We lost a great weather pioneer and human being. You should read this.....you'll be greatly surprised what you will learn!!

As with many in depth biographies, this one begins in the subject’s childhood. The Man Who Caught the Storm is an incredible free-fall into not only the life of Tim Samaras but also into the objects that consumed his mind, tornados. Tim wanted to know the what, why, where, and how of these storms that are hard to pin down yet only elusive until they destroy lives and property.
Tim is revealed as a genius self-taught engineer and physicist who held no advanced college degrees yet held his own among those experts who did. Initially Tim was a watcher, not a chaser. He invented tools and encouraged others with similar interests to assist him on his excursions across Tornado Alley during “tornado seasons”. Over the years his caravans became more and more sophisticated as he found that he needed another bit of information to solve the puzzle of why some thunderstorms spawn tornados, and why some of them are deadly while others don’t even reach the ground.
Brantley Hargrove’s narrative is compelling and tells the story of specific tornados, known now by the cities and towns they hit or destroyed. Funding was always an issue and Tim was able to join forces with well-known weather entities, such as National Geographic, The Weather Channel, The Discovery Channel, and other storm chasers who had their own fleets of vehicles and collection of unique, complex tools. There was some competition but there was also a brotherhood. The constant search for funding was ever present. A caravan of high-end vehicles and high-tech instruments is extremely costly to purchase and maintain.
As the urge to learn more about tornados requires a closer and closer look inside the tornado itself, the risks became greater and greater. Although for many years no storm chasers were killed in pursuit of knowledge, as Tim himself said, “Somebody’s gonna get bit.” When that happens, the event is taken apart second by second, minute by minute, and the tornado itself is dissected into its component pieces even as they constantly change to try to find out why it happened. You may need tissues to read this part because it gets very emotional.
We meet not only Tim’s coworkers on his “real life” job, but also his fellow tornado researchers, and we get an intimate look at his family, who supported him even when they knew what he was doing was so very dangerous. The author of his biography has done extensive research into the science surrounding Tim’s work as well as into what drove Tim to do what he did. One thing Brantley Hargrove did not allow himself to do is personify the tornados and storms. They are what they are – phenomena of nature, not thinking, plotting creatures. This is what makes this book the outstanding account that it is. People made decisions, good or bad, and storms were the result of nature, wind, heat, rain, and everything that caused them to combine on that particular day at that particular time. What a wonderful book!

Thank you to the publisher for giving me a digital copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I really liked this book. I know nothing about tornadoes it storm chasers other then what I saw in Wizard of Oz or Twister. I didn't quite grasp everything told about storms and technology to track weather, but I found it quite fascinating. The author obviously well researched the subject and the man before writing. He did a great job presenting the information, telling the story of Tim, and making it all interesting and enjoyable to read. I am glad to have read it and will definitely recommend this title to others.

Several years ago - I have no way of remembering now exactly when - I saw an article out of National Geographic in my RSS newsfeed. It was about the death of Tim Samaras. At the time, I knew the name, that he was a renowned storm chaser, and now I knew he was dead. He had been killed by the very thing he spent his life chasing. I remember wanting to cry. I didn't know Samaras; I wasn't a chaser; I had little real interest beyond curiosity. But I knew that Samaras was a great man, that he was a great chaser, that he had taught us more than anyone about tornadoes. And I knew in that moment that the loss of Samaras was a deep blow to science and the entire study of tornadoes.

Small wonder then that when I saw The Man Who Caught the Storm on Netgalley that I jumped at the chance to read it. To say that it has been an honor and a privilege to read this biography may seem hyperbole, but it isn't. From the moment I started reading, I felt connected to Samaras.

His early years as a "tinkerer" made me think of my father. His curious but engineer-y mind made me think of all the people I work with. His focus, his passion, his drive, his desire to unravel the mystery and save lives all demanded I take notice. The first third of this book is about the early years: growing up, meeting his wife, working for the government, and being insatiably curious about the storms. Hargrove sets the tone immediately. The excitement and eagerness is in the tone, the word choice, the cadence. It's impossible not to be drawn in, to feel . As the chase rachets up and the danger becomes more palpable, Samaras works to be better.

The second third of the book is the "middle years" but it is also about the ties he forges with other chasers, others studying the tornadoes and storms. It's a beautifully crafted discussion of the rise of Samaras to fame. This portion could have become bogged down and dragged. But, it didn't. Instead, the emotion of the relationship - even when those relationships are not good - keeps this middle portion interesting and exciting. It also teaches extensively about storms and tornadoes. It was fascinating! Hargrove taught effortlessly. When describing the processes behind tornado birth, he uses the same emotional language he uses to recount chases or to describe relationships. It's interesting to read and completely accessible to non-science people.

The final third of the book is the last chase. The dramatic irony of this book is that we all know how it ends. Samaras, his son Paul, and fellow chaser Carl are going to die, taken by the very storm they are chasing. For me, this only heightened the tension of the entire book. It's coming - that final chase, that final storm - and when it does it will be a storm to end storms. It's that Sword of Damocles hanging over everything else - the wide-eyed young Samaras, the seasoned veteran, the dedicated chaser - and this knowledge infuses everything with an intense poignancy which is only underscored by Hargrove's excellent and compelling word choices. In the end, it takes a monster to take out a legend, and that tornado was a monster. The level of detail about the timing, the locations, the speed and shape of the tornado are incredible, built up from information from many sources - everything from someone just a few hundred yards ahead of them who survived to mobile Doppler and many other first hand accounts as well as the cameras running inside the car.

This is a deeply emotional work and Hargrove took the time and effort to understand Samaras the man as well as Samaras the chaser. It shows. I feel like I know him. I feel like I understand his drive. Hargrove says Samaras' wife Kathy was invaluable in giving him a look into Samaras' heart. There were many people interviewed and how allowed correspondence to be used for this book. IT shows because I feel like I got a glimpse into the heart of the man, that Hargrove has forged a connection between a legend and a reader. I laughed and I cried.

Hargrove thanks many people for helping him write this book. I feel like thanks are needed. First, to Hargrove for caring enough to write this, his first book. Second, to Kathy Samaras for letting us see into the heart of her husband. Third, all the people who helped Samaras in his quest to see into the heart of the tornado and all those who worked with him in some capacity. And lastly, but perhaps most importantly, I want to thank Tim Samaras for being curious, for caring enough to want to make a difference, for chasing his dreams and the storms.

There's an old quote regarding courtship, "She chased him so hard, he caught her." Every time I see the title, I think of this quote and how truly appropriate it is to Samaras.

Many years ago I was flipping channels one day and saw a highway sigh with mileage to a couple of small towns in Texas. I paused wondering what the heck is this that's anywhere near these little towns. That was my introduction to Storm Chasers on Discovery. I kept watching the show for the rest of the seasons, but I did it saying 'been there' 'been there' 'went to high school with a girl who lived down that road' 'been there.' It's the result of being raised in western Kansas by parents from Oklahoma and Texas. Anyway, that's how I came to know about Tim Samaras.

Several years ago, I read Tornado Hunter by Stefan Bechtal and Tim Samaras, so I'm familiar with some of the basics about Tim.

I can't say that I enjoyed the book, because I knew what was coming. But, it was a good read. It was interesting to read about incidents I'd read about before, or watched, from a different perspective. There were places where the phrasing was vivid it was amazing.

Verdict: recommended for weather geeks, people living in tornado areas, and people interested in engineering.

Let's just get this out of the way right now - this book is one of my few 5 Star reads of the year and it was fantastic. I could not put it down. I mean, I was forced to when I had to go to work and such, but the book was an awe-inspiring glimpse into the life of a man who KNEW tornadoes and that ultimately cost him his life.

I've lived in the Midwest my whole life, Minnesota and Nebraska. I have been very lucky to have never actually crossed paths with a tornado, but they are terrifying nonetheless, as well they should be. As much fun as it is to go out and chase, this book and the death of Tim Samaras shows that even for the professionals, that choice can have tragic consequences.

Tim Samaras can easily be classified as one of the giants of the meteorology field, something quite remarkable for someone who never went to college. He was a man obsessed, determined to uncover the secrets that tornadoes still hold, working without tiring to understand this most dangerous curse Mother Nature has to offer. Time and time again, scientists did their best to figure out the inner workings of these beasts, with no success. it was not until Samaras arrived on the scene with inventions and tools of his own making that would get man closer than ever before to the phenomenon. Samaras took risks that many others wouldn't, and it paid off as data poured in. But the fact that he constantly escaped death honestly may have lead to his belief that he would always be able to outrun the fury.

There is much to appreciate in this book. I am rather fascinated by tornadoes, and first 'met' Tim Samaras when watching Storm Chasers years ago. I knew him from this and various other documentaries and I remember clearly his enthusiasm for his subject that he never seemed to tire of. That commitment and passion is admirable, especially when one continued to accomplish the things he accomplished, yet he kept pushing the limits because there is still so much more to know. Seeing the non-weather side of Samaras, catching a glimpse of him at home, with his family, provided a more complete picture despite the main focus being on Tim and his tornadoes.

Another aspect I appreciated was the fact that I actually understood what the author was talking about when explaining the scientific 'stuff'. I know so many of the important 'tornado words', but understanding some of the complexities would have been more difficult had the author not explained things in an easy-to-comprehend way. I don't shy away from complex topics, but while I love science, we have never been great friends (kind of ironic when one of my best friends has papers published in Science Magazine. I dutifully read his work, understanding very little except the punctuation marks and walking away with the vague notion of 'lasers'. But I read them! Can't say I am not a dedicated and loyal friend.

The author's narrative flowed well and I could picture what was going on as we moved from chase to chase to chase. it never got tired or boring, it was a fast-paced move, trying to keep up with Samaras as he pushed himself further and further. He had to know everything about this most stunning and destructive creation. I suspect that based on the work Samaras did, we will one day know all there is to know about tornadoes. Current and future storm chases can build on his work and go farther than anyone thought possible. What an amazing legacy.

This was a wonderful book to give you insight into the man who chased and studied tornadoes. I, like many others, first got to know Mr. Samaras through the Discovery Channel's Storm Chaser show. This book let me know more about him, both in his personal life and his professional. For instance, I had no idea he never spent a day in college. He was so brilliant that it is hard to imagine that he didn't have a degree to his name.

To many a tornado is a thing to be feared, as it well should be! But for others, it is one of the Earth's last mysteries waiting to be discovered. Hopefully the research and ideas that Mr. Samaras left us will further unlock the mystery in future generations.

Brantley Hargrove has written a highly researched and entertaining biography of the life of storm chaser Tim Samaras in his book "The Man Who Caught the Storm". As a non-scientist, I was able to read and understand the technical descriptions and follow along with the storm chaser jargon. I commend Hargrove for taking such complicated scientific and engineering technical details and making them understandable and meaningful to a layperson. I feel like I learned so much about tornadoes and how dangerously unpredictable they can be.
The book itself reads like a documentary on the life and accomplishments of Tim Samaras, which is fitting for a man who starred in a storm chasing tv documentary of his own. However, Hargrove adds layers to Samaras that make him more interesting, sympathetic, and human than the "storm chaser" he was on tv. I thoroughly enjoyed reading and learning about the scientists, professionals, and enthusiasts that are determined to break open the secrets of the tornado in order to save lives and property every year.

Storm Chasers are some of my favorite people. Living in Oklahoma City area we see the cars and trucks with all of the equipment on the roof every day. I live with one and I remember the day that Tim died. 

We were worried sick as our family home is in El Reno/Union City took shelter and there was nothing we could do but wait. Over the scanners we heard they had found Tim's car and at first we thought he was the only one killed, but no.

Tornadoes are one of Mother Nature's most mysterious creations. The power, the unpredictability, there seems to be no pattern to them at all. Why they demolish the town of Moore almost every few years and then there will be one untouched home in the middle. It isn't logical and yet we are mesmerized by them. We want to know how they work. 

Great strides have been made in early warning systems, but it's still not enough.

This was a hard book to read and yet it was a beautiful testament to a man who lived life on his own terms. We will forever miss them all.

NetGalley/Simon and Schuster April 03, 2018