CANORA - “Our job is chasing the wildest storms on the planet.”
And with that introduction to his video presentation, storm chaser Christ Chittick of Regina, who works on the popular TV show Tornado Hunters, had the full attention of a group of Grade 5 to 8 students at Canora Composite School on March 21.
Chittick said he first went on a storm chase with a friend back in 1998, and that experience turned into a career.
“I’ve never been so scared as I was during that first one, I didn’t know what to do,” he recalled. “But that fear turned into curiosity, and here we are 26 years later.”
He said the North American tornado season varies, but generally lasts from March through July, and sometimes into August. It starts in the Oklahoma/Kansas region, and moves north into Canada.
There are three main goals in storm chasing:
- Capture high quality footage.
- Call in reports to 911 and also Environment Canada, so they can release the appropriate watches and warnings.
- Chittick and his teammates are trained first responders, and will first make sure anyone with injuries is well looked after at a storm scene.
Chittick said he’s seen 563 tornadoes and 15 hurricanes.
“Both are low pressure systems, but hurricanes are much bigger.”
He told the students that, like a chef, a good storm needs the right ingredients. It takes cold, dry air meeting warm, moist air. In an average year, North America sees approximately 1,300 tornadoes, mostly in Tornado Alley. Although it has no strictly defined boundaries, Tornado Alley is generally thought to include: Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, North Dakota, Montana, Ohio, and eastern portions of Colorado and Wyoming, and in Canada, the prairie provinces and Southern Ontario.
Chittick said he was fortunate enough to experience the world record tornado in El Reno, Okla. in May 2013. The tornado set a record with a width of 4 km or 2.5 miles and wind speeds reaching up to 296 mph or 477 kph. It was also the strongest tornado ever recorded with a rating of EF3. The rating system goes from EF0 to EF5 with five being the strongest.
Chittick recalled that during the El Reno tornado, “We had a farm truck fly over us and land in the ditch, we lost our signal at a time when we were live streaming with an audience of over 20,000.”
Chittick explained that there are three main phases of a storm:
1) The Towering Cumulus Stage: A cumulus cloud begins to grow upward, the air within the cloud is dominated by updraft with some turbulent eddies around the edges.
2) The Mature Cumulus Stage: The storm is now reaching 35,000 to 60,000 feet (12 to 18 km). Strong updrafts and downdrafts happen within the storm. This is the most dangerous stage when tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds, and flash flooding may occur.
3) The Dissipating Stage: The storm no longer has a supply of warm moist air to maintain itself and therefore it dissipates (disappears).
A common ingredient in a thunderstorm is wind shear, where the wind is from one direction at ground level, and a different direction higher up.
Hail is commonly formed during a tornado, where a freezing line is created. Hailstones circulate up and down between the warmer and cooler air, until they are heavy enough to fall to the ground. Chittick said the world record for the largest hailstone is about the size of a volleyball.
“We usually go through about six or seven windshields per season.”
Chittick emphasized the importance of being safe during a storm, including:
- Seek shelter indoors.
- Stay away from windows.
- Monitor weather radio.
- Do not hide under or near trees.
- Risks include: lightning, tornadoes, flooding and hail.
- Take warnings and watches seriously.
And when there is a storm, it’s important to practice lightning safety:
- It doesn’t need to be raining for there to be a lightning risk.
- Stay indoors or in your vehicle.
- Avoid trees – This is where people get killed.
- Lightning can strike up to several miles away from a storm.
- Any outdoor activity should stop.
During the question and answer session, Chittick was asked if he and his crew have ever run out of gas while chasing a tornado. “Yes, a few times,” he replied. “Sometimes we get to a target area and the storm is right there. If we get gas we could lose touch with the storm, so we rather run out of gas than lose the storm.”
When Chittick asked, “After hearing me today, how many of you would like to be a storm chaser someday?” close to half the hands in the room shot up immediately. On the subject of choosing a career, he urged the students to “Pick something you’ll love to do every day.”
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