Hey All,
I was fortunate to be able to attend the service yesterday. It was very moving. There was a portion of the service where attendees were encouraged to stand and share about their friends. Rich Keen (a CU professor) spoke at the service, and he suggested a tornado naming convention in honor Tim. It goes something like this:
Since a Plinian eruption of a volcano is named after Pliny the Elder, who died trying to collect data on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, perhaps a severe tornado of the sort that claimed the lives of the three chasers (who I understand did deploy probes in the path of this tornado) might be type-named with them in mind.
The name that was tabled at the service was a "Timian" Tornado (presumably, a large strong wedge tornado). On reflection I might suggest a "Timpaulcarlian" Tornado to honor the three claimed men. After the service Rich and I spoke with Tim's brother Jack, who would like to pursue the idea to implement such a naming convention. The above names are just ideas, and any variation (Samarian - although this might be confused with the ancient city Samaria) would do these men a tribute.
Last night I emailed Roger Edwards at NOAA per the suggestion of Ron Holle. Ron had been tasked with revision of the cloud atlas and this entailed some naming, I am led to understand. Here is the reply from Roger:
"There is no authority or committee for naming tornado types, which means nobody to direct such a petition to. Tornadoes run a spectrum or gamut, often during their own lifetimes, so the science hasn't focused on categorizing them beyond the damage rating or physical factors such as vortex dynamics. Of course we have colloquial shape descriptors for their appearance (wedge, stovepipe, rope, etc.) arising from chasers and spotters, and with heavy use, some of those have found their way into scientific and media usage. If enough folks simply referred to tornadoes of similar size and behavior as "Samaran", for example, perhaps the moniker would stick simply out of heavy use. That might be the best approach."
Incidentally, Roger wrote an excellent tribute to Tim here:
http://stormeyes.org/wp/2013/06/in-memoriam-tim-samaras-paul-samaras-carl-young/
So I am officially proposing that we as a community discuss an informal name for a large violent tornado which refers to our friends who were lost in Oklahoma. I am not authorized to start a new thread, so perhaps someone who is authorized can move this post to a new thread for discussion.
Kathy Samaras reminded us at the service to treat every day with our loved ones as special. It was a great reminder. Have a great day!
Ken Langford
