Storm chasers swarm southeast Saskatchewan as severe weather threatens

Storm chasers from across North America are descending on southeastern Saskatchewan this weekend as forecasters warned the region could see tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds.

For most people, severe weather means heading indoors. For Braydon Morisseau, it means checking the radar and hitting the road.

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“There’s a lot of people up from the States, a lot of friends from Oklahoma, Texas up here right now,” Morisseau said. “That’s because this risk is so high.”

Morisseau, a professional storm chaser based in Cochrane, Alta., has spent 17 years tracking severe weather across the Prairies and into the United States.

He said Saskatchewan is one of his favourite places to chase storms.

“It’s part of Tornado Alley, so it’s where you go to see some of the biggest tornadoes on the Canadian Prairies,” he said.

The draw came as Environment Canada warned of a volatile weather setup across the southeast corner of the province on Saturday.

Keane Kokolsky, a meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Centre in Winnipeg, said a warm front was bringing hot and humid air into southeastern Saskatchewan.

“With that, it’s creating a pretty volatile atmosphere for severe weather,” Kokolsky said.

He said supercell thunderstorms are expected to develop and move northeast or east through the region.

“That’s tornadoes, large hail, damaging gusty winds and heavy rain, of course, with these storms,” Kokolsky said.

Morisseau said storm chasers watch for four main ingredients: moisture, instability, shear and trigger. He said when those ingredients come together, they can support supercell thunderstorms.

“What makes those storms so special is they contain a deep rotating updraft called a mesocyclone,” he said.

Morisseau described those storms as almost like a living thing, breathing in warm, moist air and sustaining themselves long enough to produce large hail, strong winds and sometimes tornadoes.

He said chasing storms is not something people should try without training.

“It’s definitely dangerous,” he said. “I wouldn’t recommend just going out and doing it without going online and diving into the background environment.”

Morisseau has seen more than 400 tornadoes and said he has been inside 16. But he said storm chasing is not always the action-packed experience people might see online.

“A lot of the time storms don’t happen, and we end up just sitting in a parking lot and getting a sunburn,” he said.

Still, he said chasers can play an important role by sharing photos, locations and timestamps with forecasters.

“Environment Canada actually monitors those posts, so that they can help see what is happening on a ground level to get those warnings issued out to the public,” Morisseau said.

Kokolsky said people in the affected areas should monitor Environment and Climate Change Canada alerts closely and be ready to take cover if warnings are issued.

“If your phone goes off for a tornado warning, or any other kind of alerts, careful consideration to what it says,” he said. “Just be ready to take cover if necessary.”

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• Saskatchewan 2026 summer weather expected to be warmer, drier
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