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Tim Marshall | |
|---|---|
 Marshall surveying damage from the2013 Moore tornado | |
| Born | (1956-10-17)October 17, 1956 (age 68) |
| Alma mater | Northern Illinois University(B.S., 1978) Texas Tech University(M.S., 1980, 1983) |
| Known for | Tornado damage analysis,wind and hail engineering |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Structural engineering andmeteorology |
| Institutions | Haag Engineering |
| Thesis | The Utilization of Load and Resistance Statistics in a Wind Speed Assessment (1983) |
Timothy Patrick Marshall (born October 17, 1956) is an Americanstructural andforensic engineer as well asmeteorologist, concentrating on damage analysis, particularly that fromwind,hail, and other weather phenomena. He is also a pioneeringstorm chaser and was editor ofStorm Track magazine.[1]
Marshall was born to Charles and Catherine Marshall inEvergreen Park nearChicago, in 1956 and raised inOak Lawn, then inOak Brook. Oak Lawn was heavily damaged during the historic1967 Oak Lawn tornado outbreak of April 21, 1967, when he was 10 years old. The F4 "Oak Lawn tornado" touched down about 4 mi (6.4 km) west of his home and killed 33 in town, including some of his classmates. This experience served to strengthen his interest in meteorology, and he focused his studies ontornadoes.[1]
Marshall attendedNorthern Illinois University (NIU) inDeKalb, attaining a B.S. degree ingeography with a concentration inmeteorology in 1978. As an undergraduate student there, he and classmates surveyed some tornado damage paths of the1974 Super Outbreak during an informal trip to theNational Climatic Data Center (NCDC) to collect severe weather data. Later, he and fellow students visited theNational Severe Storms Forecast Center (NSSFC) and obtained a large collection of materials the library was dumping, which formed the basis of his own library.[1]
Marshall went to Texas for graduate school, seeing his first tornado a few hours after entering the state. In 1978, he began storm chasing in west Texas and Oklahoma. He participated in field research and damage surveys. In 1980, he earned a M.S. degree majoring inatmospheric sciences fromTexas Tech University inLubbock with the thesisTopographic Influences on Amarillo Radar Echo Climatology, then went on to earn an M.S. degree incivil engineering from the same university. At Texas Tech, he worked part-time at theInstitute for Disaster Research where he began surveying tornado and hurricane damage. His first official tornado damage survey was inGrand Island, Nebraska, in 1980 and his first hurricane damage survey wasHurricane Allen in south Texas later that year. His thesis was titledThe Utilization of Load and Resistance Statistics in a Wind Speed Assessment.[1]
In 1983, Marshall was hired by the leading Texas firm Haag Engineering and eventually became Senior Engineer and Meteorologist. At Haag, he travels a great deal surveying storm damage across the United States. He has conducted more than 100 damage surveys of hailstorms, tornadoes, andhurricanes. Some of the famous tornadoes he surveyed include theF5s atJarrell, Texas (1997),Bridge Creek, Oklahoma (1999),Greensburg, Kansas (2007),Alabama (2011),Joplin, Missouri (2011), andMoore, Oklahoma (2013). Some of the famous hurricanes he has surveyed includeAlicia in Texas (1983),Hugo in South Carolina (1989),Andrew in Florida (1992),Opal in Florida (1995),Katrina in Mississippi (2005), andIke in Texas (2008). He became aProfessional Engineer in 1989.
Marshall still finds time to pursue his hobby storm chasing. During the past 30 years, he filmed more than 200 tornadoes and experienced 17 hurricanes. In 2004, he rode outHurricane Ivan inPensacola, Florida and, in 2005, he rode outHurricane Katrina inSlidell, Louisiana. In 2008, he rode outHurricane Ike inGalveston, Texas.
Marshall appeared on dozens of television programs including those onThe Discovery Channel,The Learning Channel,National Geographic Channel,The History Channel, andThe Weather Channel. He was a guest onThe Oprah Winfrey Show twice and appeared multiple times onNOVA. He has also been a radio guest, such as onNPR,[2] and has been featured in magazines such asNational Geographic andWeatherwise, to the latter of which he has contributed some articles. He also has published tornado related articles in theBulletin of the American Meteorological Society andWeather and Forecasting.
Marshall was selected by theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to serve on their Quick Response Team (QRT) where he has surveyed tornado damage inAlabama and Georgia in 1994,Nashville, Tennessee in 1998,La Plata, Maryland in 2002,Parkersburg, Iowa in 2008, the2011 Super Outbreak, the2011 Joplin tornado, and the2015 Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex tornadoes. He was on the development team of theFujita Scale Enhancement Project which produced anEnhanced Fujita Scale to update the originalFujita scale of tornado intensity. He was also a major contributor to the committee to update theSaffir–Simpson scale.[3] He has been a principal trainer in damage surveys for theNational Weather Service (NWS) since the 1990s. Between 2006 and 2012, he was elected to serve on the Severe Local Storms committee for theAmerican Meteorological Society. In 2009 and 2010, he was part of the government sponsoredVORTEX2 experiment working on the Center of Severe Weather Research (CSWR) team withJoshua Wurman. In 2012 he continued working with CSWR on theROTATE (Radar Observations of Tornadoes and Thunderstorms Project). His job was to deployin-situ pods in the paths of tornadoes and perform mobilemesonet transects of storm environments.
During his early years in Texas, Marshall was married to Kay, who he met at a concert. She is anatural history museum exhibit designer and anornithologist. She sometimes accompanies him on storm chases. He learned and taught guitar as a youth and enjoys mountain climbing, snorkeling, and scuba diving.[4]
Marshall has authored and coauthored numerous scientific publications in the realms of meteorology and civil engineering. In addition to editing and writing forStorm Track (1986–2002) and writing various articles forWeatherwise, he wrote the following booklets:
Marshall also released the following DVDs throughStorm Track:1991 Kansas Tornadoes,1995 Wedgefest,1998 Octoberfest,1999 Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak,2000 Millennium Chases,2002 Chase Highlights,2003 Chase Highlights, 2004 Midwest Mayhem,2005 Spin Summer,2007 Tornado Chases,2008 Tornado and Hurricane Chases,2009 Inside VORTEX 2,2010 Tornado Chases, andTim Marshall's 25 Years of Tornado Chasing.[5]