If you were in Battleford last Thursday and Friday you might have seen a bright orange vehicle with the words Tornado Hunter written across it.
That vehicle, a Ford F-150 EcoBoost affectionately referred to as “Flash,” is the one used by the Saskatchewan-based Tornado Hunters storm-chasing team to chase tornadoes across North America.
One of the team members is Ricky Forbes, who gave presentations to students at St. Vital School on Thursday afternoon and at Battleford Central School on Friday morning.
His role with the Tornado Hunters team is driver of Flash.
“It is my job to get my team as close as we can to the biggest and baddest storms on the planet,” said Forbes.
The other chasers on the team are photographer Greg Johnson, who has given presentations in North Battleford before, and videographer Chris Chittick.
The Saskatchewan-based team members are full-time professional storm chasers. They capture footage of tornadoes as they happen, which are sold to media outlets, and they also warn people about the storms as they approach.
The three are featured as part of the CMT series Tornado Hunters, which recently finished its first full season.
At St. Vital School, Forbes gave a high-energy presentation in which he displayed his enthusiasm for tornadoes and severe weather.
The high season for storm chasing is the spring and summer months. The plan for the Tornado Hunters is to start chasing again in March and head to the Texas-Oklahoma area. The chasing continues for another six months.
The off-season months are filled with presentations to schools and to business functions.
Forbes says he typically does about 200 presentations to schools in a year, and he has been doing those all over western Canada.
Most students are aware of tornadoes already, because of what they have seen in the movies or on TV.
But Forbes is able to teach the kids some finer points, such as where “tornado alley” is located and what a “supercell” looks like. According to Forbes, the supercell cloud looks likeit has a UFO on top of it.
There is general knowledge of tornadoes in Canada, Forbes said, but “it’s not as much as if you’re right down the heart of it, down in the United States.”
Still, Forbes notes tornadoes are taught as part of the science curriculum in Canada. What he does is “share a bit more knowledge” and give the students “real-world experience, to share the stories and the photos that we have.”
In his presentation at St. Vital School, Forbes showed videos the team captured of tornadoes as they touched the ground. Among the memorable tornadoes he spoke about was a massive Manitoba tornado the team chased last year, which was North America’s largest tornado in 2015. They also followed a massive double-funneled tornado storm that hit Pilger, Neb. on June 16, 2014.
Forbes called that twin tornado “absolutely incredible” and “one of the highlights of my career.”
Forbes also spoke about the scariest storm they encountered – the El Reno, Okla. tornado of May 31, 2013.
“We were caught inside the world’s largest tornado,” said Forbes.
The El Reno storm was rated as F-5, the highest possible.
“It was the only time we were ever caught inside a tornado. That was our scariest experience. We got too close, and it caught us.”
Forbes had to drive their Flash vehicle into the ditch to avoid the debris flying through the air. He described the situation as “absolute chaos.”
“There’s buildings being ripped apart, hay bales flying through the air, vehicles flying through the air. We were lucky to make it out.”
One reason they made it out alive was the durability of their storm-chasing vehicle.
Their Ford F-150 is specially equipped with a number of features so the vehicle can withstand all kinds of debris and harsh conditions, while also protecting those inside. One of them is a bullet-proof coating, so if a tornado “throws steel or wood our way we don’t want it going inside the cab and hurting us.”
Forbes calls the Flash vehicle the “fourth member of our team” and says it “saves our lives.”
The vehicle and the presentation were a big hit with the students, many of whom posed for photos and “selfies” with Forbes and the truck afterwards.
Some even had some fun jabbing and kicking the side of the vehicle to see just how much damage Flash could withstand.
Flash emerged with little wear and tear.
