What I learned on my first day of storm chasing: Stay safe. Stay in the truck.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014, 12:00 PM - Heavy raindrops were hitting the windows and roof so hard that it sounded like being pelted by gravel. Visibility was still good as we drove along, but the dark clouds above held the promise of even heavier rain ahead. Suddenly, the pressure against my eardrums built to the point of near-pain as we encountered the gust front, and then just as suddenly as it came on, the pressure subsided as we punch through. Even though we weren't chasing a very strong storm at the time, I could see why this was becoming so popular.

The start of my day on Wednesday, June 18 was fairly quiet. I arrived at work, started up my computer, rooted around in my RSS feeds for stories to write about, and attended the morning weather briefing to see what's going on across the country. I was about to return to my desk when I was intercepted by my boss, Ryan Johnston, and The Weather Network Executive Producer Derek Snider. For some reason, the smiles on their faces made me a little nervous.

"Scott. Do you get motion sick?" Derek asked me, while both he and Ryan continued to smile.

"Yeeeeesssss..." I answered, carefully, waiting to see what's up. 

"How would you like to go storm chasing with Mark Robinson?" he asked without skipping a beat. 

Having been a meteorologist for roughly a decade, I've been asked several times if I've ever gone stormchasing. Although I've been curious about it, my answer has always been that my basic inclination is to stay away from tornadoes. Given the destructive tornado that swept through Angus, ON, just the day before, that basic inclination was definitely there, but something unusual happened.

"Storm chasing? With Mark?" I replied, giving a slight pause before continuing, but rather than saying something about passing that day or the like, I heard myself say: "Cool!" 

So, it wasn't too long before I found myself sitting in the passenger seat of Mark's truck, as we travelled down the 401 towards the far reaches of southwestern Ontario. 

This being my first chase, I asked Mark if there was anything I should know about - any specific rules about storm-chasing that the uninitiated should be made aware of before we actually encountered any storms. It all came down to safety, with examples like:

1. If it's hailing, don't get out of the truck (and by extension, if it starts to hail, get in the truck)
2. If there's lots of lightning, don't get out of the truck (also, by extension, if lightning gets close, get in the truck) 
3. Sometimes we need to move quickly, so always be ready to get back in the truck. Fast.

As we drove along, Mark talked about some of his experiences in southern Ontario, and how this is likely the best place for someone new to storm chasing to start out. This region can have some strong storms and tornadoes can certainly form, but in general, the storms just aren't as powerful as those seen further south. That gives an added buffer of safety for someone, before they try to tackle the storms that rage across US Midwest and Plains States. A great example is the devastating El Reno tornado on May 31, 2013. That particular tornado, which killed professional storm chasers Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras (Tim's son) and Carl Young, and caused injuries and damages to other storm-chasing teams operating in the area, as it tore through central Oklahoma. Mark was near El Reno at the time, along with Jaclyn Whittal and their cameraman, and the tornado passed by to the north of them, with only around one kilometre to spare. With his years of experience, Mark is confident in his abilities to keep himself and his team safe during a chase, but one aspect of the El Reno tornado that he pointed out was that the rain bands surrounding the funnel made it very difficult to identify as a tornado until it was nearly on top of them.

Checking the weather radar as we made a quick pit stop, Mark pointed out a storm in eastern Michigan that he liked the look of, which was going to cross over into Ontario somewhere between Sarnia and Chatham-Kent. Angling towards the storm, we met up with a stormchasing friend of Mark's, and set ourselves up west of Strathroy, ON, where we captured these amazing clouds that were pushing in ahead of the storm.

NEXT PAGE: AND THEN IT HAPPENED, GUST-NADO AND A BOWING STORM

We didn't stay long, though. Weather, by its very nature, is chaotic, and this particular storm was no exception, unexpectedly taking a turn towards the southeast. Since we wanted to be close to the south end of the gust front associated with this storm (apparently the place to be), we made a mad scramble to pack everything back in the truck, hopped in the front seat and we were off! Our next stop was near Thamesville, where we watched some amazing lightning across the horizon and caught the gust front moving in, but again it turned out that the best place to be for this storm was slipping away from us. Just as the rain began to wash over us, we were back in the truck and making our way further south, heavy rain drops clattering against the truck and our ears popping as we passed through the gust front. 

Wow! Beautiful gust front! Near thamesville pic.twitter.com/WDYqBZhHRD

— Mark Robinson (@StormhunterTWN) June 18, 2014

Racing south to catch this bowing storm. pic.twitter.com/c9bRyKqwS7

— Mark Robinson (@StormhunterTWN) June 18, 2014

Gustnado-type funnels were evident. Did not see any ground swirls. pic.twitter.com/d1fhSNd8Oz

— Mark Robinson (@StormhunterTWN) June 18, 2014

In the end, the storm was just moving too fast for us, so with 'safety first' in mind, we stopped by the side of the road and waited for the worst of the rain to leave us behind. 

Even though we missed the best views of the storm, the adventure wasn't quite over yet, though, as we met up with two other storm chasers, David Piano (whom Mark has known for years) and David Robins while making another stop along the 401 near London. Piano and Robins, who drove down from Hamilton specifically to chase this storm, shared their stories of the gust front passing through, and showed us their incredible photos of the clouds, which were far better than anything Mark and I were able to see on our own chase. In a short interview, they revealed that their favourite chase so far was during the July 19, 2013 thunderstorm outbreak in southern Ontario, especially with the storm that hit Olympic Park in Hamilton (check out some footage of the storms here). They also talked about the ice storm that hit southern Ontario just before Christmas, as it was incredible to see it develop, coating everything in a thick layer of ice, and to see the impacts of it - how it turned regions into disaster zones of downed trees and branches. Along with storm chasing as a hobby, Piano, who has been chasing for years now, is currently in the Media Studies program at the University of Guelph - Humber, looking to get into field reporting, and Robins will soon begin his studies in the atmospheric sciences at York University, with plans to become a meteorologist. We'll have to keep an eye on these two for after they graduate. 

Overall, even though the inclination to stay away from tornadoes is definitely still with me, I can say after going on my first storm chase that I would definitely be up for the experience again. For anyone else interested in trying out storm chasing for themselves, the best advice to follow is to be safe. Witnessing the storms, and getting images and videos of them, is definitely exciting, but no image or video is worth risking your life over. It's far better to miss the footage but still be alive to give your account of what happened, than for the contents of your camera to be the only record of the last moments of your life.

Not quite as good as I was hoping for, but … massive gust front, June 18th, near Chatham. pic.twitter.com/Uahh2npPWB

— Mark Robinson (@StormhunterTWN) June 23, 2014