featuring Connor Mockett
Hello, everyone! Welcome back to another week of The Weather with Connor. This week, I’d like to talk about what I’m currently getting ready to do: travel across the country to the Canadian Prairies to chase storms! That’s right, I’m taking a 2 week vacation to chase storms in Western Canada during their peak season, and I’m taking my lovely girlfriend (who has never once been out west) with me.
We’ll be leaving on Saturday, June 24th, at 6:00 am. Day 1 of travel will be a 15.5 hour day, driving from Winchester all the way to Nipigon, where we’ll be staying at a really nice motel that I’ve wanted to try out for a long time (don’t worry, it’s actually a nice motel, not a creepy middle of nowhere motel).
On the morning of Day 2, it’ll also be a 6:00 am start. After a quick stop at Timmies for breakfast, we’ll start to make our way towards the Prairies for what will be another long day in the car. Barring any changes to the schedule, if we’re chasing in Manitoba, the plan is to stop at a nice new hotel in the Town of Grenfell, Saskatchewan.
After Day 2, I have no idea where I’m staying! That might sound crazy, but it’s the truth. After we get into the Prairies, if there’s even a slight chance for a storm in either Manitoba, Saskatchewan, or Alberta, that’s where we’ll be, and we’ll then figure out somewhere to stay after said chase ends. If we’re not chasing, the plan is to make our way to Cochrane or Airdrie, Alberta, which is usually my destination when I drive out there.
While in Alberta, I plan to take my wonderful woman into the mountains. We’ll be checking out the incredible Lake Louise, which is totally amazing every time you lay eyes on it. I’m going to try to get us to Moraine Lake, because I’ve never been to that lake and I would really like to see its beauty as well. We’ll go into Banff while over there too, and also check out one of the most famous railfanning (train photography) spots in the world, which is Morant’s Curve just north of Lake Louise. Yes, I do love trains as well, it’s my secondary photography hobby.
This year, I’m really hopeful to see the thing that has escaped me the past two seasons in the Prairies, which is a tornado. That’s the main goal of this trip, seeing a tornado. Really though, I’m just happy to see a storm, mostly because there have been next to zero storms in Eastern Ontario this season so far, in what’s been the quietest season I’ve ever seen in my life here.
I always see storms out in the Prairies every year, and there are always storms that end up being in my yearly wall calendars. I, and my girlfriend Zoé, are extremely excited to hit the road and see what this year has in store for us. I’m excited for my girl to experience the Rockies and see some real storms.
We’ll be gone from home for 17-18 days, so we’ll get back on the 10th or 11th of July. I promise to have many stories to tell from this trip, which I’ll get to tell in my columns. I’ll talk to all of you in a couple of weeks! Thanks for reading.
