Tornado Hunter Touches Down in Weyburn

The popular television show Tornado Hunters documents the adventures of three crazy individuals. Chris Chittick is one of those wild men, and he found himself in Weyburn yesterday. Chittick was doing a promotion at Great Plains Ford and showing off the Tornado Hunters custom storm chasing F-150.

He’s been chasing storms for over 20 years, and kind of stumbled into the profession he loves.

“I started storm chasing back in 1998. It started out as a hobby, and then I saw I could make money doing the hobby. So after I graduated school in 2004, I started storm chasing full time and turned it into a business” Chittick said.

Safe to say that decision turned out pretty well for Chittick. He has starred on two hit TV shows now. He was on Storm Chasers for five years from 2007 – 2011, before joining up with Ricky Forbes and Greg Johnson to start Tornado Hunters back in 2014.

Forbes drives the bright orange customized truck, designed especially for storm chasing. Meanwhile, Johnson handles the photography and Chittick is the self-proclaimed “video guy”. Although Chittick was just hanging out in Weyburn this time around, it wasn’t so laid back last time he was in these parts.

“We got the crazy storm that hit Estevan, with the big hail a couple weeks ago. There was seven tornadoes three weeks ago that was just east of Weyburn here, we got on those. And then last week there was a great tornado in Manitoba,” he said.

Chittick and his crew spend nearly 3 months every year storm chasing down in the infamous Tornado Alley. This is a chunk of land in the States including Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska. This region is home to hundreds of tornadoes every year.

Once the busy season ends down south, the Tornado Hunters venture back up north for the next six weeks of summer. Chittick has been doing it for 20 years, but still gets a rush with every encounter with a tornado.

“It’s been a pretty busy summer, I’m not going to lie,” he said. “But just because we go out chasing we’re not going to see a tornado every time. So it is a lot of hit and miss. But when you do nail that tornado, that’s like the ultimate feeling.”

For those crazy enough to want to get into storm chasing, Chittick has some advice on how where to start.

“Don’t do what I did (laughs). That is probably the worst way to go about it,” he said ... “There are tour groups all across North America that take you out, show you how to forecast and show you how to chase. Do that once or twice, kind of get a feel for it. Or take some spotter training classes. I know in Regina, Environment Canada offers a couple different spotter training classes. Shows you how to read a radar, shows you how to read different weather maps and put your own forecast together. Do that, grab some buddies, and hit the road.”

With the craziness of storm season practically over, Chittick has had some downtime recently. For his big fans though, he does have some exciting news.

“We’re in a lull here for the off-season. But we are in the process of pitching a new show concept,” Chittick said. “I’m not going to get into right now, but we’ll definitely be on TV again next year.”