Storm Photographer, Speaker and Workshop Leader

 

Greg Johnson

Greg Johnson, one of North America’s top professional storm-chasers and severe weather experts, is also an accomplished photographer, speaker and workshop leader.

Having graduated from Canada’s renowned Acadia University, and after founding and building a leading successful communications, marketing and advertising firm from the ground up, Greg decided it was time to devote himself full-time to pursuing his passion for capturing nature’s most beautiful and deadly displays of severe weather. With over ten years experience, Johnson enjoys chasing classic prairie thunder and lightning storms, tornados, hurricanes, blizzards, and plans to continue traveling the world year-round to satisfy his appetite for capturing extreme weather.

Using sophisticated weather-tracking technology, his ability to read severe weather patterns and a team of dedicated sidekicks, Greg has put over 50,000 kms on his Tornado Truck, intercepting and documenting hundreds of storms across the United States and Canada in 2011 alone. His recent experiences include documenting and compassionately sharing the aftermath of the massive twister that devastated Joplin, Missouri. Additionally, Greg’s skills are now being retained by the outdoor festival industry in order to assist organizers in ensuring their large crowds are kept safe from sudden and severe weather risks. 

A firm believer in the ‘Bucket List’ philosophy, Greg’s mission is to inspire others to chase their own passions, while sharing and teaching the lessons he has learned from pursuing his. When he’s not storm-chasing, Greg enjoys life at home in Regina, Saskatchewan spending time with his wife and three children, and of course - cheering for his beloved Saskatchewan Roughriders.

 

The Team

Jaclyn Whittal - The Scientist

Jaclyn grew up watching thunderstorms with threats of Tornados on hot summer nights in a small town near Windsor, Ontario. Though, like in the movie Wizard Of Oz, she was more likely to sing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” than be whipped away by a twister. A love of music led to piano lessons at the age of six, she started singing at age 13 and performing in local Musical Theatre productions.

After studying Musical Theatre at the University of Windsor, Jaclyn later performed at Deerhurst Resort (where Shania Twain got her start), recorded two independent albums, toured Europe performing “Grease” playing the role of Sandy.

Ready for a new challenge, Jaclyn moved into the world of media. She started working with Rogers TV in Barrie as the host of “Restaurantours” and was Co-Host of “Daytime” before discovering her true passion is weather. Jaclyn is currently a second year student with Mississippi State University in the Broadcast Meteorology program, and just completed a Weather Internship at City TV Toronto.

Jaclyn enjoys running, cooking and gardening in her spare time.

 

Martin Weaver - Video Specialist

Martin joins the team this year and will be focusing his attention on capturing video throughout our tours and transforming it all into the webisodes that will be featured on this site.

Martin grew up in Ottawa and has always had a passion for video and TV news.  After completing broadcasting school his career brought him to Regina where he has worked as a news photographer with Global Regina News, covering a wide range of large events.

He says "I am always looking for a thrill and when I found out about an opportunity to go storm chasing I immediately knew this would be a perfect fit".  While growing up he remembers watching the movie “Twister” at the drive-in and admiring the storm chasers and hoping that he could share that experience himself. "I look forward to the upcoming storm season and to learning lots about severe weather while working with a great team of people".

 

Vanessa Neufeld - Photographer

Vanessa Neufeld is a freelance photographer, owner of vphotographic and adrenaline junkie who loves to photograph anything extreme but also specializes in eclectic editorial portraits.

Vanessa will be joining the team for the month of May as our onboard photographer and will be getting her first taste of supercells and tornadoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dallas Hicks - Meteorology

Dallas hails from Brandon, Manitoba, where at the age of 6, he declared his future profession was going to be... a weatherman.  He presented his first project on tornadoes in Grade 3, while creating an award winning presentation in Grade 11 on tornadic development and severe weather safety. He visited Brandon's weather office before he got to high school to find out what courses to take to achieve his goal of becoming a Meteorologist and continued along that path to Brandon University, where he began a B. of Science, majoring in Physics, with minors of Math and Geography.  In his third year, however, Environment Canada closed most of their local weather offices, which forced him to find another way to turn his passion into a profession. He applied to join Nav Canada, the country's Air Navigation Service provider, and became a Flight Service Specialist, which combines the disciplines of Air Traffic Control with those of Aviation Meteorology.  The training for the job included Theoretical Meteorology and accreditation as an Environment Canada Weather Observer.  His work has taken him from Thompson, MB (where he observed a funnel cloud, normally quite uncommon that far north, although they have had at least two tornadoes in the city's history) to Edmonton, AB (the airport, located near Leduc, AB, is near the starting track of the famous Edmonton tornado of 1987) and now to Regina, SK where he met Greg Johnson and offered to join him on his first U.S. tornado hunting expedition in 2009.  When he can't join Greg on his trips, he calls upon 14 years of experience to provide quick analysis of situations and interpretation of radar and satellite data from Regina in order to help the Tornado Hunter find his targets.  When he's not staring at the sky, Dallas is a musician (currently playing keyboards with local band Actual Lungbutter), a goaltender for a ball hockey team, an obsessive collector of hockey jerseys, an active Freemason, a thrillseeker (skydiving, anyone?), an avid fan of tattoos and most importantly, a husband and father of two.