More bad news hit the residents of Oklahoma, as storms ravaged the Oklahoma City area last weekend. Among the casualties was Discovery Channel host Tim Samaras & his assistants.

The men were mourned by family and colleagues over the weekend. Samaras was the field organizer and founder of the Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in-near Tornadoes Experiment, more commonly known as TWISTEX, a tornado research organization, and spent more than 20 years following storms.

"I chase the most powerful storms on the planet," he said in a video uploaded to YouTube last year. "All my life I've been on a quest to figure out how theses things worked. Tornadoes have represented the biggest challenge as they are very fleeting in nature and extremely difficult to pinpoint their proposed destruction."

"At times I have mixed feelings about chasing these storms," says Samaras in the video, which shows the inside of a tornado using one of his devices. "On one hand they are incredibly beautiful, on the other hand these powerful storms can create devastating damage that change people's lives forever."

The National Weather Service says the El Reno tornado that killed the storm chasers was given a preliminary EF3 rating by the National Weather Service in Norman, Okla., meaning its winds likely maxed out at around 165 mph. The weather service said Monday morning the rating remains preliminary as it reviews radar data.

Radar images captured by the radio station KTLX show the tornado developing from a storm passing through the area.

Samaras was found dead inside his mangled car wearing a seat belt, according to ABC News. At least one of the other men was found 1/4 mile from the vehicle. NBC News cites Canadian County Undersheriff Chris West as saying the two other men were heaved 1/4 mile in opposite directions.