Summer twisters in Sask: Tornado Hunter shares insights and experiences

With it being summer, it is also tornado season in Saskatchewan.

Tornado Hunter and Photographer Greg Johnson said Saskatchewan is at the north end of Tornado Alley.

“In general, you look at the Gulf of Mexico, you come up through Texas  and Oklahoma and Kansas, then up through the Dakotas and into Saskatchewan and Manitoba is where we would see Tornado Alley.”

He explained the southeast corner of the province usually sees the most tornadoes and severe weather.

“Every year it’s a little bit different. Some years Minnesota got the most tornadoes, some years Saskatchewan has had the most, and some years it’s Oklahoma; it really depends, season to season.”

Johnson said timing and moisture are the reasons why some of the southern states get worse tornadoes.

“And it’s all about moisture. The Gulf of Mexico is closer to them, so they’re going to get more of that. I’ve seen tornadoes in Texas in December. I’ve seen them in January and February. We only have a short season up here, maybe six weeks.”

But if you haven’t been close up to a twister, you might be wondering what it sounds like.

“You have probably heard it referred to like a train coming down the tracks, but I don’t think it sounds like that at all; for me,  the sound I would liken to a waterfall,” said Johnson.

“The closer you get to the waterfall, the more intense that sound is. Frankly, if it’s going through an open field, it doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but if it’s going through trees, if it’s going through a community, that sound level goes up.”

Johnson pointed to a tornado encounter he had in Lincoln, Nebraska, earlier this year.

“We saw a tornado literally crossing the road right in front of us, but I got kind of trapped in the rain, and I’m driving down a road, and we have to get through the rain to get to where the tornado is going to be and the wind is hitting us, the hail is hitting us from the left-hand side, and it is getting bad,” explained Johnson.

“I’m thinking to myself, we should turn around to get out of here, and at that moment, the power poles on the right-hand side of the vehicle started snapping off and flying into the field to our right and that was the moment where I went, ‘Okay, we’re in the wrong spot. We got to get out of here.’ So we did.”

Tornado Hunter and Photographer Greg Johnson on the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Thursday.