For the past 16 years Cochrane’s Braydon Moriseau has been chasing tornadoes and other extreme weather events both north and south of the border.
Moriseau is a member of the Prairie Storm Chasers team and plans to head to the United States with his team members to catch the peak of tornado season down there.
“I love just going out and experiencing these storms,” Moriseau explained. “There are just so many elements to it. It’s like baking a cake. You need the exact ingredients for it to be perfect. You are driving an X amount of time to get there, and you are witnessing this moment that’s really special because it will never happen again.”
Moriseau said sometimes storm chasers get a bad rap as adrenaline junkies, but he feels storm chasing is more like a calling.
“There is absolutely always an adrenaline aspect, but I feel like storm chasing gets a bad rap in its solely adrenaline fuelled,” he stated. “But there are so many other aspects to it in the public aspect, and in like a spiritual aspect. It’s all the moments in between going to find these storms. You are meeting with friends on the road, and just listening to music. Being in line with the elements and with the road, in a sense.”
By sharing their experiences and videos on social media, Moriseau said Prairie Storm Chasers provides vital eyes on the ground for government agencies.
“By using social media, (storm chasing) is a very valuable tool for Environment Canada or the national weather service in the States,” he explained. “For Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and into the prairies, by using hashtags like #ABStorm, they monitor those hashtags.”
Moriseau and Prairie Storm Chasers were present during the EF-4 tornado near Didsbury last year, with their images being shared nationwide. But Moriseau’s most powerful spiritual moment chasing storms was during the Tilston, Manitoba tornado in 2015, which was the longest lasting tornado in Canadian history– blowing for nearly three hours in a slow moving and ever-morphing rotation.
“It was a tornado that morphed into a variation of shapes and sizes, and we were in our armoured vehicle for that one,” Moriseau recalled. “It was an indescribable experience.”
Moriseau said he and his team are expecting an active tornado season this year due to the large amounts of precipitation which have fallen in recent weeks. He cites Alberta’s first confirmed tornado of the year captured on video near Kathyrn, east of Airdrie, on April 29 as being a potential sign of things to come.
“We are seeing a lot of early precipitation on the prairies,” he confirmed. “Having that precipitation is really important because we have such drought-stricken conditions right now. But that is a huge player in our weather season. Another is our foliage. By having that groundwater in our thriving foliage, something called evapotranspiration happens. By that foliage getting the sunlight, and sweating, that creates atmospheric moisture that helps feed our storms on the prairies.”
Moriseau said, for him, extreme weather is something to be understood rather than something to be feared.
“When it comes together, it is such a fluid moment,” he said, describing the moment when Prairie Storm Chasers comes near a tornado. “That moment will never be the same again. There will always be different aspects of it that will be new. I think it's really cool that you can collect that moment and be there to witness that.”
