Manitoba storm chaser fascinated by 'sheer power' of weather

When a tornado or severe thunderstorm hits southern Manitoba, Jordan Carruthers doesn't stay indoors — he leaps into his sport utility vehicle, dubbed Storm Shadow, and drives towards the action.

Carruthers, who runs the website Manitoba Storm Spotter, is a storm chaser based in Portage la Prairie, Man. He has been chasing storms for at least eight years and posts images and updates on social media.

"I've always kind of just loved storms ever since I was a little kid, so I grew up watching twister movies and stuff like that and just taught myself how to read radar and watch weather and whatnot, and it just kind of grew into what I'm doing now," he told CBC's Radio Noon.

"I think the most fascinating part is just seeing how much of an impact the weather can have on everything — the sheer power of it, I'd say."

Carruthers is among more than 100 Manitobans nominated by their peers, friends and families for CBC's #IamMB project, which is sharing the stories of people who shaped our province's past, lead us in the present or will create our future.

• Read profiles of some of our nominees and learn more about all the nominees in our photo gallery.

Those who nominated him praised his dedication to warning others about incoming severe weather.

"We spend a lot of our time putting out warnings and notifications through our social media pages, and I think that's one thing that most people like the most about following us is they're always up to date," Carruthers said.

In addition to chasing storms and notifying the public about severe weather — which he does outside of his day job — Carruthers also offers tours that allow people to accompany him on chases.

"For the most part, it's pretty safe. We tend to stay at least a few miles away from anywhere that we're expecting a tornado. We don't want to be in the tornado, we just want to witness it and photograph it," he said.

"Of course, with weather, nothing's 100 per cent predictable, so it can get dangerous at times. We try to avoid those situations, though."

The first big storm that Carruthers chased was the tornado that touched down in Elie, Man., on June 22, 2007. It turned out to be the strongest recorded tornado in Canadian history and the first to receive an F-5 classification.

• Decade after Elie tornado, former storm chaser remembers every detail

"I woke up that morning and I saw that we were expecting some severe weather, so I kept watching the radar and everything throughout the day and ... it was midday, anyway, that I headed out to start chasing," he said.

"I wasn't in Elie for the tornado, I was a few miles west of Elie, but yeah, it was a crazy day. I got some pretty nice photos that day…. There was so much going on that day."

Carruthers is currently working on a documentary about the Elie tornado, which he hopes to release later this year, featuring interviews with people who were there when the twister struck.

"A lot of them just talked about how frightening it was. It scared them quite a bit, I'd say," he said.

"A lot of people lost their homes in the tornado and they spent a lot of time rebuilding their lives after that."