The many storms in Yorkton are about to reach a bigger audience. Yorkton Storm Hunter Ryan Crouse has just joined the TVN Weather network, an invite-only site which hosts some of the most well regarded storm hunters. Crouse and his team, driver Chris Flasko, and second photographer Katie Vickers will now be broadcasting their stream to a much larger audience.
Crouse describes the move as "epic." He says that the rest of the team on TVN consists of the elite of North American storm chasing, and he is barely able to put into words the honor it is to be counted among their number.
The move does come with some new features for Crouse, which he admits have a bit of a learning curve. Viewers will be able to see where Crouse is at all times when he's broadcasting, and he had to go from a web-based streaming service to a new system. The new system is more complicated, but it also brings Crouse to an entirely new audience.
"We always sat around 20 to 65 tops, and [Sunday] when we were recording a funnel cloud by Carnduff we were at 255 viewers," Crouse says.
Crouse plans to do some streams of winter storms now that he has the larger platform. He says there will be unique challenges in winter, especially as roads quickly become impassable due to snow, but he knows that people in Texas, for example, who have never seen snow, will be interested in seeing what happens. He expects the winter feeds to be brief, because of the different dangers chasing brings in the winter months.
"It will be just to get a visual representation of what is going on here, for the world to see... When you're out in the summer, and you know you're in a tornado warned area, you generally should have a safe route in, safe route out, with back up plans... In the winter you don't really have that, since the back roads in Saskatchewan really aren't drivable."
Those who wish to keep track of Crouse can visit www.yorktonstormhunter.com or www.tvnweather.com.
