Tornado Hunter star says Alberta keeps him busy chasing storms

Storm chasing in Alberta keeps the star of Tornado Hunters — a reality television show — busy.

"Once the storms fire up, we get underneath the ones that look 'tornadic' to us and hopefully we bag a tornado later on in the day," Chris Chittick told CBC News Friday.

Last year Chittick chased four or five storms south of Medicine Hat, Alta.

"It gets pretty flat down there. It's a beautiful chase area, beautiful storms," he said. "And there was one in Three Hills just a couple weeks ago that we missed but saw the pictures."

More than one tornado has touched down in Alberta so far this year, including near Three Hills, Alta. That one resulted in a viral photo of Theunis Wessels.

Chittick described the snap as "pretty awesome."

"I love seeing other people's photos and videos," he said. "I think that was a great photo."

Chittick started storm chasing in 1998 while living in the United States.

Then in 2013 he ended up joining a chase team in Regina and has been in Canada since.

After looking over weather reports each morning, Chittick's team — consisting of himself, another videographer and a driver — choose the best location and head out, hoping to capture bad weather.

Prepping for an 'oops moment'

Chittick and his team were in Calgary meeting fans and showing off some of their equipment, including a truck specially outfitted for storm chasing.

Along with a number of compartments for carrying computers, cameras, tripods and personal items, the truck is specially coated to better protect those inside from the elements.

"We have a rollover protection cage in case anything does happen and we have an 'oops moment,'" he said.

Windshield lost to hail

The more remarkable storm he's chased in Alberta saw his team sitting underneath a tornadic supercell throwing out baseball-sized hail.

"We ended up losing our windshield and lost the side windows," he said.

"I got hit with hail as it was coming in from the side while I was trying to film the storm."

The team had to Duct Tape the whole inside and exterior part of the windshield, he said, before their four or five hour drive back home.

Chittick's mom has learned to accept his line of work, but his wife is a different story.

"I took her storm chasing once and she'll never come again," he said. "She is not a fan of what I do."

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