Documents the life and achievements of the greatest tornado chaser who ever lived: a tale of obsession and daring, and an extraordinary account of humanity's high-stakes race to understand nature's fiercest phenomenon. At the turn of the twenty-first century, the tornado was one of the last true mysteries of the modern world. It was a monster that ravaged the American heartland a thousand times each year, yet science's every effort to divine its inner workings had ended in failure. Researchers all but gave up, until the arrival of an outsider. In a field of PhDs, Tim Samaras didn't attend a day of college in his life. He chased storms with brilliant tools of his own invention and pushed closer to the tornado than anyone else ever dared. When he achieved what meteorologists had deemed impossible, it was as if he had snatched the fire of the gods. As his ambitions grew, so did the risks. And when he finally met his match - in a faceoff against the largest tornado ever recorded - it upended everything he thought he knew. Journalist Brantley Hargrove chronicles the life of Tim Samaras in all its triumph and tragedy. He takes readers inside the thrill of the chase, the captivating science of tornadoes, and the remarkable character of a man who walked the line between life and death in pursuit of knowledge. An exploration of obsession and the extremes of the natural world.