One of Canada’s original tornado hunters talks about what it’s like to get close to a deadly storm . . .
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Greg Johnson was named one of Canada’s top 100 explorers by Canadian Geographic, starred in Tornado Hunters on Netflix in 2016, was on Canada Reads in 2018 and has photographed some of North America’s largest tornados.
When he’s not chasing bad weather, he teaches photography to people wanting to take their cameras off Auto mode, and leads trips including the rare chance to tag along on a tornado chase. COVID-19 made it impossible for Johnson and his team to chase the big storms in the US the last two years but this spring he’s headed south for some much-missed tornado hunting.
Johnson turned storm chasing into the Netflix show Tornado Hunters. – All photos courtesy of Greg Johnson except where indicated
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We caught up with Johnson between trips to find out what it’s like to get close to deadly storms.
Q. How did you start storm chasing?
Greg Johnson is one of Canada’s original tornado hunters – photo courtesy of Christian Lamontagne
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When I started storm chasing it was pretty much myself and basically one other person in Canada that were doing it. And you know, it was certainly not considered an industry or a way to make money. It was a bit of a hobby.
I came to it as a photographer, I learned the meteorology afterwards. I learned meteorology for the means to be able to get to the best storms, and get the best photos.
2009 was my first Chase into the US, but I had been essentially taking pictures of storms since I moved to Saskatchewan in 1995.
A good storm chase yields great photos and little damage to people or property.
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Q. What does a good day look like when you’re chasing storms?
On a good day nobody gets hurt. There’s no property damage. And I get a beautiful photogenic storm in which I can sell the photos and the video and everyone is safe and happy.
Speciality trucks are used to increase safety during storm chasing.
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Q. How do you stay safe when chasing a tornado?
First of all, we have real time radar available in the vehicle with us. So, we have the ability to understand what direction the storm’s heading, what direction the tornado was heading. Overall, tornadoes are reasonably well behaved in terms of their movement. And, just through experience, you get used to looking at a storm and being able to understand how it’s behaving and how it’s changing and adapting to the environment around it.
We have an armored Ford F150 truck. And it has a bulletproof exterior on it, it’s got a roll cage, all designed to keep us safe in the event of a rollover or something like that happening. Obviously, we don’t ever want to be in that position. But if it happened, we’re in a relatively safe cocoon in that vehicle.
Johnson tries to stay a safe distance from tornados.
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Q. Have you ever been in the middle of a tornado?
Yeah, actually, we have. In 2013 as a team, we were caught in the largest tornado ever recorded at El Reno, Oklahoma. And it is a very well documented storm that grew from a few hundred yards wide to 2.6 miles wide in just a couple of minutes. And so we were caught in a bad spot. I hope it’s a once in a lifetime situation, but there was a lot of experienced storm chasers that day caught out of position because no one ever had an expectation that the tornado would get that big and set a world record.
It was actually quite terrifying. The fact that we live through it, you do kind of wear it a little bit like a badge of honour. But if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t.
Encountering the destruction of big storms can be challenging – photo courtesy of Vanessa Neufeld
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Q. When people have been killed or injured in a tornado, how do you deal with your feelings of witnessing a tragedy?
Tornadoes are destructive forces in nature. They’re commonly on the list of people’s top five fears, and with good reason. They’re the fastest wind speeds on Earth. If you get hit by them it very easily could be fatal.
Many people riding along on a storm chase describe it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
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In a career of doing this, it’s been 13 years, I’ve seen my fair share of destruction. A number of years ago, we decided as a group that we were going to try to be more prepared, in particular, when it comes to offering first aid and that sort of thing. So, we always are well equipped, and both from a training standpoint, and from an equipment standpoint, to be able to offer assistance when it’s needed. I’m not interested in photographing or videotaping dead bodies, or people suffering. So, when we end up in those environments, the camera just stays in the truck, and we do what we can to help out.
Storm chasers can predict storm direction.
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Q. What are the most memorable storms you’ve photographed?
Johnson has seen many photogenic storms in 13 years of storm chasing.
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Some of the biggest, most memorable storms that we’ve ever chased happened in 2014, in a place called Pilger, Nebraska, just outside of Omaha. And we witnessed three EF-4 tornadoes, and two of them were on the ground at the same time. So, we had one on one side of the road, and one the other side of the road, and we’re shooting an EF-4 tornado out of both windows.
Then in 2016 we witnessed the Dodge City, Kansas tornado family. When you get cyclic storms like this, they can spawn tornado after tornado after tornado after tornado. We witnessed 12 tornadoes that day. And they were all super photogenic. It’s widely recognized by storm chasers around the world as being probably the most photogenic tornado day in history. (Editor’s note: watch video from these storms here.)
People can sign on for a storm chasing tour.
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Q. You offer thrill seekers the chance to sign onto of your storm chasing tours. What is that like for them?
The type of people that come on these tours are either really obsessed with weather or they’re some sort of photographer or have some sort of interest in capturing footage or photos. And for the most part, peoples’ reaction is excitement or adrenaline. There’s a fine line between fear and excitement but I think that’s part of the fun of it. We have real positive feedback from guests because it’s the type of thing people look at as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Teaching long exposure photography techniques below the Northern Lights in the Yukon.
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Q. You’ve just returned from leading a photography tour to Vancouver Island and you’ve got trips plan to the Yukon and Newfoundland. What do you look for when selecting Canadian destinations for your tours?
Johnson leads photography tours to Canadian destinations – Photo courtesy of Becky Wiens
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I have lived in seven different provinces in this country. I’ve traveled to basically every corner of the nation. I feel confident that I can pick really great locations where I can put together week-long trips that other people will think are interesting. There are so many interesting parts of this country that people don’t get a chance to see. And when you travel internationally, yeah, there’s a lot of really cool places to go. But if COVID taught me anything, it’s that we’ve got so much to offer right here at home that I want to try to show off as much as I can.
If I can make my living taking people to cool places to take pictures, that’s a pretty good thing to do.
Greg Johnson is grateful for a career that includes photography tours and storm chasing.
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More articles by Carol Patterson.
BTW, What the heck is the difference between a tornado and a hurricane?
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Very interesting article. Greg is my son. I always enjoy hearing about his adventures.
What are you guys doing now why are there no more series I am a huge fan