Point Roberts Wind Storm

EDIT: My Periscope stream was actually saved. The sound wasn't recorded, but I did get some great shots of the flooding.

Check out the link below.
https://www.pscp.tv/thatchaserchick/1dRKZbErEvvKB


The lower mainland doesn't get much in the way of severe weather but

on this rare occasion, I was able to chase a wind storm in Point Roberts. There was a wind warning, with 100km/hr winds in the forecast. 

It was dark when the winds were strongest, but here is what it was doing to my hair. https://twitter.com/thatchaserchick/status/955082312395276288/video/1

I did some live streaming over Periscope. After the whole Jeff Piotrowski's popularity with the #blueshed during Hurricane Harvey, I figured live streaming was where it was at. And I guess it can be, if you have good reception, but my stream ended up having no sound.. and I didn't realize the streams get deleted after 24 hours. The unfortunate situation was that I ended up streaming more than I did shooting with my actual camera. I got a lot of newsworthy shots of flooding on the roads and in and around people's homes, but it was with the Periscope stream -which had no sound and was deleted a day later. 

All in all though, I picked a good spot, since I got barely and precip. The only water I was hit with was seawater. 

What was unique about this situation was that I took a date with me. He said he wanted to "do something out in nature", so I brought him along for the ride. Even though he likes thunderstorms (and even sort of chased a tornado last year near his hometown in Alberta), I don't think he knew the extent of what he was signing up for when I picked him up at 5am this morning. He hadn't eaten. He wasn't dressed warm enough or wearing anything water resistant. He took it like a champ though. 

There were times where I could tell he was physically uncomfortable and wanted it to be over.. But he didn't explicitly tell me to stop, so I kept going because it felt good. Though, this was the reason I actually didn't take any photos and didn't shoot that much video with my good camera -because I was so aware of him just standing there, covering his ears with this pained expression on his face as the wind cut through him. He was a good sport though. At one point, he held my gear for me while I was live streaming. I appreciated that.

When I bought him breakfast afterwards and then drove him home, he was like.. "That was fun.. Though I guess I just didn't realize we were going to be out in it for that long.." I kind of laughed and was like.. "I cut it short for you. I could have spent all day out there."

I guess the lesson here is, storm chasing is like sex; if you don't have the right partner, it's way more satisfying to just do it alone.

Here is the video I did manage to get.

The Great American Eclipse

A total solar eclipse is as magical and as mind blowing as you think it might be. Nothing will prepare you for totality. You know it's going to be this incredible, once in a lifetime experience but once it happens, you feel.. altered somehow. I felt high for about a week afterwards. You wouldn't think that one percent would make much of a difference, but the sun is extremely bright and even if 99% of it is eclipsed, you can't look directly at it. Photos and video just don't fully capture it. Totality is something that needs to be experienced in person. Definitely one of the highlights of my chasing adventures so far.  

I got to share this experience with my best friend, Roseanna, who I have known since high school. 

I met her at place in South Surrey at 5:30am on the 20th. After a bit of a wait at the border, we were off!

We stayed in a sketchy little motel in Longview, WA. The security there was top notch! ;)

This didn't matter though because we were in bed by 6pm and up bright and early (1am!) to start driving south, to our target area. 

I had spent weeks agonizing over a location and having fitful dreams about it clouding over. I was obsessed. I finally settled on a Walmart parking lot on Turner Road in Salem, OR with a clear view to the East. It worked out perfectly. They are open 24 hours so we had access to amenities. There were quite a few other people there, as you can see from the video further down.

I was so ready for this. Featured here is my Canon Rebel T3 with my 200mm lens. And the my trustee Sony HXR-NX70, with it's slightly melted frame. A hand-me-down from George Kourounis

This was the compilation of my shots during different phases of the eclipse. 

My mom got this footage of the moment of totality. Whereas everyone was focused on the sun, she shot the surrounding and environment and really captured the experience. 

Wildfire Smoke on the North Shore and Whistler

The wildfire smoke has been so thick that it's been making the sun look an eerie shade of pink at times. I took this opportunity to take a lot of sun shots, in preparation for the eclipse.

At one point, a friend and I decided to drive up to Whistler, where the smoke was even thicker, since it was downwind from the nearby fire in Cache Creek. I shot a bit of video of it and this footage ended up on The Weather Network. 

'Tis the Season

In 1988, my mom rode out Major Hurricane Gilbert in Jamaica. It was a Cat 3 by then, but at its peak intensity it was the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record until Wilma in 2005. I remember following it on the news, wondering if my mom was okay. When she got back, she told me about the giant waves of rain, the terrifying howl of the wind, the hotel shaking as if a train was plowing through it, and the roof ripping off. At 7 years old, the only feelings I had were fascination -and envy. I knew right then and there that I had to experience a hurricane before I died. To paraphrase hurricane chaser Josh Morgerman, I think people who become obsessed with severe weather are just born this way.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was the first time I seriously contemplated intercepting a hurricane. Charles Edwards planted Myrtle Beach in my head when he commented on a Facebook post. As of Tuesday morning, Hurricane Matthew was forecast to be just offshore early Saturday near Myrtle Beach, SC as a Cat 2.  It was only an idea at first.. But as I looked up flights and hotels, the idea became more real and I started to get very nervous/excited. I checked the forecast every 3 hours, anxiously jumping between websites and contemplating my next move. I figured Myrtle Beach would be okay because I would arrive and just ride it out in a concrete high rise hotel. I didn't feel comfortable with the thought of renting a car and driving around alone in an attempt to relocate. Picking a hotel and just staying there seemed to be a safer option. I had crashed at a friend's place the night before and was still in pajamas at 2:30pm. My one track mind needed some food. I relocated myself to a nearby Tim Hortons and did some more thinking. By this point my nerves were making my stomach turn. Eventually I went to the library that I normally study and work at.

As time wore on and the forecast slowly changed, I started to consider West Palm Beach, FL instead. It was around 5pm by this point. The chasers I was chatting with throughout the day kept giving me tidbits of advice. George Kourounis's words of wisdom were, "Don't wreck my camera. Wrap it in plastic like it's a Tinder date." Myrtle Beach still felt like a better plan because it seemed less complicated and the hotel would have been cheap. At the end of the day, I just thought of it as a solo vacation. I was actually looking forward to having a hotel room to myself almost as much as the hurricane. My nerves were on high alert. It's like my instincts were fighting each other. One part of my brain, a very small part, was telling me that I was f*cking crazy but the rest was just trying to figure out the logistics of how I could pull this off. I suddenly had to make an urgent trip to the bathroom -that's how anxious I was. Shortly after 8pm, I was ready to pull the trigger on Myrtle Beach. I was going to arrive on Thursday and leave on Sunday. It looked like it was going to come very close to land. Then came the most useful piece of advice, from Scott McPartland, which was to call the hotel to make sure they were planning on staying open. I knew that South Carolina was going to be under a mandatory evacuation. He said that sometimes a hotel will kick you out and you have to scramble to find a new one before the storm arrives. Well f*ck. I knew I had to make this phone call, but a part of me didn't want to because I didn't want the answer. I knew it was not going to bode well for this trip.

Sure enough, I call the Polynesian and the front desk clerk, in her adorable southern accent, tells me that they are closing the next day at 1pm due to mandatory evacuation. As soon as I hear this, my heart sinks, but my stomach settles. I'm disappointed and bitter... but as it turned out, the later model runs and forecasts the next morning showed it veering east, out into the sea. At the present moment, the center of the storm will be nowhere near Myrtle Beach. I dodged a bullet. 

I feel like hurricane chasing is this exclusive club that is very hard to get into... but I know that eventually I will have my day in the rain. It just won't be this day. 

As was the case with ex-boyfriends of the same name, it appears that Matthew isn't the one.

Steam Devils on Lake Ontario

Last night I went to a friend's birthday party in Downtown Toronto and decided to crash there because I wanted to stay close to the lake to catch the steam devils on Lake Ontario as the sun rose. Southern Ontario has been going through quite the cold snap in the last few days so the conditions were going to be perfect. Of course, being the only sober one at the party meant that I couldn't actually fall asleep at a reasonable time. I laid in the dark in my friend's bedroom, trying to sleep through the yelling and death metal reverberating throughout the tiny apartment. I eventually dozed off at around 4:45am..

I woke up at 6am and went down to HTO Park West. The conditions were exactly like I'd hoped. No wind, clear sky, and a balmy -21 celsius. As I drove south on Yonge St, the lake came into view and I could see the steam gently rolling over the water. "Oh my god, there it is!". I literally said that out loud to myself. Remember, I've only had an hour of sleep. Downtown is so peaceful very early in the morning. Traffic was non-existent.

 This is what the lake looked like before the sun peeked over the clouds.

Once the sun came out, all these steam devils of various sizes began to spin up. It was a bit tricky shooting directly into the sun.

After being outside for 30 minutes, I started losing feeling in my fingers, despite wearing two sets of gloves, and my cameras were starting to become less responsive. I spilled some coffee on my bag and it froze instantly. If I breathed on the viewfinder on my camera, it fogged up and turned into frost. The rim of my coffee cup had frost. I literally ran back to the car because it felt like the cold was going to overtake me. I could feel it creeping up my legs as I walked as they gradually became more numb. It reminded me of when I did the Polar Bear Swim last year. Once back in the car, I cranked the heat and it felt like my fingers were on fire. For a moment I was concerned that I actually got frostbite. Despite living here for the first 12 years of my life.. after 22 years of being in Vancouver, my tolerance for cold had weakened significantly.

This was the the perfect Valentine's Day gift to myself.

Here are the video highlights.

EDIT: I'm proud to say that this footage ended up being shown throughout the day on The Weather Network on February 15th. :)

Etobicoke Snow Storm: My only blizzard footage from my time in Toronto.

This was shot with no tripod, after midnight and after a few glasses of wine. Warnings said the gusts were 70-80km/hr. The storm was occurring right outside my apartment complex. There is a roundabout/cul de sac type of thing that creates unique wind patterns between the three buildings. Near the end of the video, I got caught right in a huge gust that created a vortex in the playground. I was stuck there and a bit disoriented. The footage is quite shaky at this part because I'm being pelted in the eyes with snow so I keep turning my face away from the wind, and thus moving the camera. I would have gotten better shots with goggles and a tripod.

Lake Erie Wind Event - October 28th and 29th, 2015

On October 28th, I decided to skip class and ride along with George Kourounis and the Storm Hunters, Jaclyn Whittal and Mark Robinson, from The Weather Network to document the wind and waves at Port Stanley, located on the northern side of Lake Erie. We got hit with what may have been the moisture from the remanence of Hurricane Patricia (there's some debate on whether this was actually the case). The wind felt warm and mild and the water looked like chocolate milk as the sand got churned up. We saw some impressive waves hit the lighthouse.





The next day, on October 29th, George picked me up bright and early and this time we headed down to Crystal Beach, which is near the northeastern tip of Lake Erie. Mark and Jaclyn were already there, and apparently they spotted a waterspout in the distance about 15 minutes before we arrived! It was a shame to miss it, but it was pretty far away and didn't last long. Unlike at Port Stanley, the wind at Crystal Beach was far from mild. With gusts of up to 100km/hr, it was cold and unforgiving. We were also pelted by graupel -snow flakes coated in ice, so essentially pea sized hail flying at your face at almost hurricane force. This didn't seem to phase the surfers though. Like us, they were also in their element but in a different way. It's interesting how people are drawn to severe weather for different reasons and seem to come from all walks of life.

I edited together a little video of both days.