My love for the weather began in the most Saskatchewan way possible—getting picked up in a tent by a plow wind at the ripe age of seven. It happened in my hometown of Wadena, and when I stepped out of that mangled tent to see trees toppled and trampolines airborne, I wasn’t scared—I was hooked. That moment sparked a lifelong fascination with severe weather.
When I was 12, my family moved to Kindersley. For a storm-obsessed kid like me, it couldn’t have been more perfect. That summer, it felt like there were tornado or severe thunderstorm warnings multiple times a week. I spent my days pedalling my bike to the edge of town to watch the clouds roll in, dreaming of the next big storm. That same year,1996, the movie Twister was released. Watching Jo Harding chase extreme storms lit a fire in me. It told me I could do it too.
By the time I turned 16 and got my driver’s licence, those dusty backroads of West Central Saskatchewan became my classroom. I learned how to read the sky, understand radar, and follow the subtle cues that a storm was about to put on a show. This region, with its endless skies and open fields, taught me everything I needed to know.
Over the last 15 years, I’ve chased severe weather across the Canadian Prairies and the northern United States, tracking rotating supercells, intercepting tornadoes, and documenting the raw power of Mother Nature in motion. From Manitoba to Montana, I’ve spent more nights under mammatus clouds than I can count, always with a camera in hand and adrenaline in my veins.
But over time, the skies over West Central grew quieter. Drought conditions gripped the region, and the dramatic summer storms that shaped my youth became rare. I still chased, still forecasted, but those electrifying Saskatchewan stormscapes felt like a thing of the past for the region.
This year, though, something changed. The weather pattern shifted, and suddenly, it felt like I was 12 again, warnings lighting up the map, hail hammering the fields, and even tornadoes making appearances. Once again, I find myself chasing in the very place where it all began. And I’m not just chasing, I’m thriving.
Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to share my storm footage on major news networks, freelance with The Weather Network, and have my work aired around the globe. But there’s something uniquely special about coming full circle, back to my roots, back to West Central Saskatchewan.
This land shaped me. It's storms that raised me. And now, every time I look to the sky, I’m reminded why I fell in love with the weather in the first place.
Here’s to the chase, and to the place that made it possible.
