A meteorologist was killed in a car accident caused by bad weather while chasing a hurricane in Minnesota on Wednesday.
Martha Llanos Rodriguez, 30, of Mexico City died when a semitrailer rear-ended a car she was riding on Interstate 90 after Rodriguez’s vehicle was stopped to avoid power lines, officials said. Was.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Rodriguez and three other meteorologists were pursuing a severe storm system that brought devastating winds, flooding, hail and reports of possible tornadoes to the southwestern part of the state.
The victim, who wrote for Spanish-language outlet Meteorard, was chasing stormtroopers in Nebraska and Iowa before embarking on a fatal trip to Minnesota, according to his twitter page,
His death comes after three other storm chasers were killed in the Midwest while tracking storms over the past two weeks, according to meteorologists and chasers, as the severe weather depicted in the 1996 film “Twister” was discovered recently in the US. was walking upstairs. ,
“Sometimes there is such an amount of chaser on some storms that it creates potential traffic and other hazards,” said Marshall Shepherd, director of the Atmospheric Science Program at the University of Georgia.
“Seeing storms in their natural context has a scientific and broader significance so I’m not averse to chasing, however, there are elements that have become a bit wild, Wild West-ish.”
Police said three students at the University of Oklahoma were killed after being chased by a twister in Kansas on April 29.
Gavin Short, 19, of Illinois, was one of the victims.
“He loved it, and we were so happy for him,” his mother, Beth Short, told WMAQ-TV.
“And that’s right, it’s the worst nightmare for us and the other two sets of parents.”
Greg Tripoli, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who taught a hurricane chase class in the 90s, told his students that car accidents are a bigger threat than debris or lightning.
Still, the threats outweighed the many potential rewards, he said.
“Watching a tornado is a life-changing experience,” Tripoli said.
“You want to see one instead of just talking about them. It’s really one of the excitement of life. You have to take chances and go out there and follow your passion.”
“It’s no different than rock-climbing or deep-sea diving.”
with ap wires