Mother Nature has long given humanity many reasons to study its magnificence and glory, and for five seasons on Discovery, the team behind the unscripted series Storm Chasers spent their time tracking down the biggest and wildest tornadoes out there. One star from the show, driver and meteorologist Joel Taylor, passed away this week at the age of 38.
Joel Taylor died on Tuesday, January 23, but the details behind his death are currently unknown. At this point, it is believed that Taylor's passing had nothing to do with storm chasing in any capacity. Fans no doubt remember a few years ago, when Storm Chasers' Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and Carl Young were killed while chasing an Oklahoma tornado.
After posting an initial message of mourning on Tuesday, the storm-chasing team Team Western OK Chaser updated its post to address the fact that so many of Joel Taylor's fans were asking about his cause of death. It appears everyone will have to wait until after an autopsy for the medical team to reveal what happened, which indicates the circumstances may not be so straightforward.
Before signing on with Storm Chasers back in 1998, Joel Taylor attended the University of Oklahoma and studied meteorology, which eventually led to him joining fellow Storm Chasers star Reed Timmer in driving around and tracking tornado patterns. The duo were part of a team from the website TornadoVideos.net (which has since become TVNWeather.com), and it was that success that led to the team joining Storm Chasers in 2008 for Season 2. They remained on the show for the next fours seasons until Discovery cancelled it after Season 5.
Following the end of Storm Chasers, Reed Timmer started up the somewhat similar web series Tornado Chasers, and Joel Taylor reteamed with Timmer for the new show's Kickstarter-promoted Season 2, though not for the entirety of the season. And after a third "season" composed of previously shot supplemental footage, Tornado Chasers came to a close.
To be expected, Reed Timmer also took to social media to share his sadness about Joel Taylor's death.
CinemaBlend sends our thoughts and condolences to the family and friends of Joel Taylor in their time of mourning.
