Vorticity – 2022

The 2022 storm season was a busy one for me. Before July 8th, I had seen four tornadoes and had witnessed some great structure. The risk area for July 8th was fairly large, but the primary area of concern seemed to be focused west of Saskatoon. As a Regina resident, I hate chasing north and west of Saskatoon. It’s about 3 hours of driving to get there, and then you’re normally driving away from home while you chase, which makes the return trip even longer. 

My friend Herry and I decided to go to an area with more marginal risk just south of Saskatoon around Hanley or Kenaston – at least it was a bit closer to home. As we watched the cumulus field go up and down, we watched the radar and knew we were missing out on some action. A cell by North Battleford put down a tornado, then another. As it was still early, we decided to keep moving north along the front edge of the cumulus field to somewhere just north of Saskatoon. As we drove, the North Battleford cell put down its third tornado, and our decision became more complicated. That cell looked like it was weakening, and we knew that if we pushed west to try and get to it, we’d miss out on a storm that might build out in front of it. So we stayed put and, sure enough, something developed out in front of the dying North Battleford cell. We moved into position, and as we approached, it became clear that this storm was strengthening. We stopped in our first timelapse position, jumped out of the vehicle and saw a large cone tornado on the ground. After timelapsing from that spot, we decided to try and get a little closer. After moving, the tornado began to weaken and rope out, which was when I captured this scene.

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