With tornado season just starting, storm chaser Braydon Morisseau anticipates he will be busy.
Morisseau has been chasing storms since he got his drivers licence in 2008. He had a passion for weather and storms since he was seven years old and decided to teach himself everything there is to know about weather systems.
“When I was really little I really liked weather, I didn’t read or anything. But my parents got the school to bring in weather books and I started reading then,” Morisseau said.
Morisseau is one of three members of Prairie Storm Chasers. The team is spread out over Alberta with Morisseau based out of Cochrane, another based out of Airdrie, and the other in Fort Saskatchewan.
He and his team were following storms all over Alberta during the Canada Day long weekend. Tornado season in Alberta usually starts at the end of June and lasts the duration of the summer.
In 2014, Morisseau purchased and outfitted a Jeep, named Predator, as his go-to storm-chasing vehicle. He and his team are sponsored by Campbell Scientific, which supplies them the equipment needed to storm chase.
“We use our forecast models prior to the event and then in the morning we look at our service observations to see where the better environment for a tornado is - where the cloud cover is, moisture, wind chill, things like that,” Morisseau explained.
Morisseau just returned from a two-month trip to storm chase and facilitate tours in the United States. He said his team saw upwards of 30 tornadoes.
“It’s been really quiet in Alberta for a while for our average number of tornadoes, we’ve been below average for the last five years. So to already be four days into the season and be four for four days with tornadoes is crazy,” Morisseau explained.
Morisseau explained there’s a science behind why Alberta may be in for a busier tornado season this year.
“The last few years we’ve been in an el niño pattern and we’re transitioning very quickly to a la niña pattern right now. What we’ve been lacking for tornadoes right now is the flow aloft, the wind at different elevations. We haven’t had that support for the storms that produce tornadoes. Before that, it was moisture problems when we did have the flow. Now we have the moisture and the flow together,” Morisseau explained.
Morisseau clarified that he doesn’t storm chase necessarily for the thrill and there can be a lot of days where his team has false alarms. He and his team always use the utmost caution when chasing storms and he recommends people do their research before taking on a career like this.
“It’s not just driving at clouds – there’s a lot of waiting. There’s a lot of days where you get what’s called a capping inversion and it’s like a pop bottle when you’re shaking it and the environment is boiling up and whether the cap pops off or not, there could be storms or there might not be even if the environment is there,” Morisseau explained.
“I like to get fairly close to the storms but I’ve studied a lot and kind of know what a storm ‘thinks’ to an extent. There’s a lot of visual components that you can look at and see what the storm is doing and how it’s reacting,” Morisseau said.
For more information about Braydon Morisseau and the Prairie Storm Chasers, visit prairiestormchasers.com or find them on Twitter and Facebook.
