Storm chaser shares electric experiences
It was a March break storm chasing adventure for a group of Welland children — and some parents and grandparents — as they saw flashes of lightning and watched a tornado develop from start to finish Thursday morning.
And they did it all without having to venture from the comfort of Welland Public Library thanks to Niagara-based storm chaser David Chapman.
Chapman showed videos and photos of storms from across Ontario during his presentation at the library’s main branch.
“I’m mainly focusing on how storms develop and what we see happens locally.”
Chapman’s interest in storms started young, probably as young or younger than some of those children who came to see him.
He remembers his first thunderstorm when he was three or four years old.
“I asked my mom why the power went and she told me and that piqued my natural curiosity.”
His interest grew from there and while other children in a book program in Grade 3 were reading “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” he was reading books on thunder, lightning and storms.
“At the age of 12 I told my friends that I was going to be a storm chaser and here I am today,” he said before the presentation, one of three he was making at the library’s three branches. One of his other presentations was on birds.
When he first started chasing storms it was his father, Brian, who took him out.
“We did what we called Tim Hortons storm chases. If we a saw a storm in the distance and there was a Tim Hortons in that direction, we’d go there and watch.”
As he got older, around 16 or 17, Chapman — also a professional photographer — started to plan ahead with his father as to where they would chase a storm.
“We’d use radar off of the TV and the internet, see where the storms were and where we needed to be. We didn’t have the laptops and smartphones, we used our eyes to read the clouds.”
The pair would also tune in to area AM radio stations and listen for tell-tale crackles over the air. Those crackles were lightning strikes interfering with the radio signal.
Chasing storms these days is much easier with all of the weather apps found on smartphones and internet sites accessed through laptops while on the road, he said.
But Chapman said it was good to have that early base of reading the clouds and sky for signs of storms.
He said anyone thinking of chasing storms should study the weather as much as possible, read up on everything they can or look at becoming a meteorologist or scientist to gain a better understanding.
Asking experienced storm chasers about the experiences and what to look for is also helpful, he said.
While Chapman and his father usually target areas from Windsor to London, Barrie and Arthur, areas with fairly open unobstructed views, he said Niagara sees storms capable of producing tornadoes.
“We usually get 12 to 13 tornadoes in Ontario a year. Niagara had small tornadoes in Grimsby in 2011 and one in the Highway 406 area in Welland in 2008. We haven’t had a big one here in recent years.”
Some of his work can be found at www.naturebirdsandweather.com/apps/photos/.