Vault Cultural Collective hosts Kyle Brittain to speak about high-impact weather
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Kyle Brittain, a freelance video journalist and storm chaser, gave a presentation at The Vault Cultural Collective, Feb. 16, about his adventures, and extreme weather events across Canada.
His presentation marked his first time in Strathmore, attending at the request of The Vault to come out.
“It is quite a niche career … I work professionally in weather and have for six years now. I basically just take my meteorological knowledge, experience as a storm chaser and former wildland fire fighter to get out there and document high impact weather,” said Brittain. “I want to be able to try and inform the public, as well as to try to help keep them prepared for intense weather events.”
Brittain explained his work largely consists of capturing footage of weather events as they occur, reporting on what is happening in the atmosphere, and attempting to forecast how the weather events will develop.
He added weather has been effectively a lifelong passion, which is what eventually lead him to the career choice.
“It sort of came naturally as a result of liking weather, so I decided to start chasing storms. I thought it would be cool to work as a firefighter for a few years, and then they started to come together,” he said. “You start to realize how much you love to witness, observe, and document these sorts of displays of nature and I think it is a matter of falling into place over time.”
Brittain said he hosts similar presentations at libraries and schools in a variety of capacities. For audiences, he explained they are often interested because it is uncommon to have access to first person, on the ground accounts of extreme natural events.
An understanding of meteorology and atmospheric science aids in the profession and his ability to effectively be in the right place at the right time to witness weather events.
“I love it. That is why I do it. I like to share those experiences with others who will not be going out there and documenting that, or seeing that up close,” he said. “I think it is important to educate the public as well about these type of severe weather events, especially here in Alberta where we are no strangers to high-impact weather.”
Photography, he added, is another aspect of his career he said came about by happenstance, following a train of thought that if he was going to travel to document high impact weather, it would be a good idea to learn how to capture still images.