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Canada's Tornado Probe Project
In 2022, an idea was conceptualized to build a device capable of sustaining tornadic wind speeds. Deploying scientific instruments inside tornadoes has never been done or attempted in Canada. Projects via the recently founded Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory have received funding to conduct research on these topics and build climatological databases, such as tornado and hail occurrences across Canada. However, these projects lack a significant component, which is collecting measurements inside and surrounding severe convective storms. There is currently no plan to actively deploy instruments inside convective storms or to build a supercell climatology in Canada other than the maintenance of a passive observational network. Therefore, the primary goal will be to try and fill those gaps. Convective storms are poorly understood in Canada due to lack of environmental data and in-situ measurements. The initial goal of this project was to deploy a grid of probes equipped with research-grade instruments ahead and inside of convective storms with 4k high-resolution action cameras to capture the full scope of tornadoes, hailstorms, flash floods and damaging winds (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Idealized schematic of probe deployment ahead of tornado.
TP-01 will be deployed to attempt to measure the first meteorological data set inside a Canadian tornado, inspired by the work of Samaras et al. (2004) in the United States. Therefore, this project is the continuation of Samaras' work with the latest technology, a new engineering concept and a new methodology. This probe will sustain tornadic winds and will be mounted with a calibrated weather station to measure wind speeds, wind direction, barometric pressure, temperature and humidity (RH) with a 360-degree array of 4k high-resolution GoPro action cameras filming inside some of the costliest weather phenomena in North America; hailstorms, tornadoes and flash floods, something that has never been attempted across Canada. The prototype is designed to be transported into a small pickup truck by constructing a universal custom-made transportation and deployment device mounted in the truck bed. Unlike previous camera array systems, which only provided ground level recordings, TP-01 can be deployed in any terrain and at any location, and be free of obstructions such as crops, tall grass, fences, cars, debris, flash floods, etc, meanwhile utilizing engineering principles that minimizes wind load failures. TP-01 can record videos at the ground level up to 2m height. The prototype was tested in Alberta in summer 2023 with great success and with promising results for future summers.
Tornado Probe (TP-01)
Figure 2. Tornado Probe (TP-01) early schematics. The weather station has since then been upgraded.
Figure 3. Tornado Probe (TP-01) transportation system.
In 2023, after receiving independent research funding from the University of Western Ontario via the John M Thompson Innovation Fund a prototype ‘probe’ was developed and built to sustain tornadic winds (Figure 2). The probe is mounted with a Davis weather station to measure wind speeds, wind direction, pressure, temperature and humidity (RH) with a 360-degree array of 4k high-resolution GoPro's attempting to capture data inside supercells. The tornado probe or “TP-01”, will be deployed to attempt to measure the first pressure drop inside a Canadian tornado, inspired by the work of Samaras et al. (2004) in the United States. However, previous work has taken measurements directly at ground level, while TP-01 will measure the atmospheric variables at a two-metre height AGL. To do so, TP-01 will have 9” spikes going into the ground for anchoring. The calculated estimated wind speed failure of TP-01 is 238km/h (EF2 tornado), making it likely that the anemometer will fail long before the probe itself will.
The prototype is designed to be transported into a small pickup truck (Figure 3) via a custom-built transportation / deployment device mounted in the truck bed. Since the prototype is 6ft tall, it needed to be engineered in a way that the instrument is foldable (to adhere to transportation safety laws), while maintaining the integrity of the instrument and with the ability to deploy it quickly in-the-field (deployment time is ~45s with two people). The flexible legs and spike system is designed for the user to simply apply minimal force by stepping on each leg to penetrate the ground and the spike system applies outward force on the ground, locking it in place. This design allows the prototype to be in the form of a tower and equipment to be mounted in a camera tripod fashion, to give a zero (ground level) up to two-metre-high view of the desired project outcome.
Therefore, unlike previous camera array systems, which only provided ground level recordings, TP-01 can be deployed in any terrain, at any location, and be free of obstructions such as crops, tall grass, fences, cars, debris, flash floods, etc, meanwhile having a design that minimizes wind load failures. The prototype is versatile, having been deployed in mud, water-filled ditches, sand and semi-frozen ground, easily deployable, submersible and can hold a multitude of different scientific instruments at various heights.
Why does this matter?
In-situ measurements in tornadoes are rare. Samaras (2004) was able to get a probe inside an F4 tornado in 2003, that was directly at ground level, using recorded pressure to calculate wind speed. More recently, a published paper by Sills and Connell (2025) found a dataset from 2010 showing the only known direct hit from a tornado on a meteorological instrument in Canada at a 3-metre height. While extensive research is being conducted on the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF-Scale, Sills et al., 2020) and Doppler Radar measurements of tornadoes (Kosiba and Wurman, 2023; Wurman and Gill, 2000 and Wurman et al., 2021) both of these methods remain wind speed estimations from observed damage and derived Radar wind velocity. The only way to measure wind speeds inside a tornado and get a non-estimated wind speed is with a professionally calibrated meteorological instrument (anemometer). These measurements are rare due to the nature of tornadic winds, which can damage the equipment either directly by wind speeds exceeding anemometer specs or by lofted debris (Lombardo et al., 2015). While an ASCE standard for wind speed measurements inside tornadoes is still being assessed (LaDue et al., 2023), it is our current estimation that our wind measurement data via TP-01 will meet the ASCE standard for wind measurement and therefore may provide a valuable contribution to the scientific community.
Project Goals
Primary Goals
Secondary Goals
Tertiary Goals
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record a direct “hit” by a Canadian supercell in 4k60fps
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record a direct "hit" by a Canadian tornado in 4k60fps
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collect meteorological data from instruments on probe(s)
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be the first to get a tornado “hit” on an instrument probe in Canada
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be the first to measure a significant pressure drop inside a Canadian tornado
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provide insightful video footage on the behaviours of Canadian damage indicators (DI) for future EF-Scale research
Project Documentation
We understand that TP-01 and/or project outcomes such as the collected field data may be of interest to the scientific community. Therefore, in an effort to encourage and promote scientific advancements, we are proud to provide all our project documentation and data in an open-source format. Please contact us at nzpchasers@hotmail.com for project documentation. Project videos will be made commercially available via our licencing websites for your project needs.
Video 1. TP-01 probe deployment on July 23, 2023 at 6:05pm local west of Lodgepole, AB, Canada. Max reported wind gust was 42km/h from the south. This supercell moved through the area with a near-miss to the north and proceeded to dump a significant hailswath through the forest with hail up to tennis-ball. Pressure increased ~10hPa (mb) after the passage of the storm.
Limitations
The main limitations of this study are:
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Operational costs are high
Operational costs of tracking supercell storms that may produce tornadoes across the Prairie provinces is high. Tornadoes in Canada are fairly infrequent when compared to the USA, and this requires a lot of travel throughout a season.
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Sensor limitations
Since we are on a limited budget, commercial-grade wind anemometers were selected ranging in the $300-500CAD. Why is this important? A lot of lower grade sensors use a wind average over 1min or 5min, which can lead to missed 3sec peak wind gusts. Not to mention that most commercial-grade anemometers usually max out wind speeds at ~200km/h. Research-grade equipment is overall better, but is costly and difficult to operate.
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Limited manpower
This requires a skill set that rarely exists in Canada. The user needs to forecast for tornadoes, operate safely around deadly storms, deploy ahead of the tornado and retreat. On top of this, the user needs to have some experience with meteorological and camera equipment as well as a basic research background for SOP and data logging. This unique skill set is impossible to find.
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Limited number of probes
Building a single probe is approximately $3,000CAD, since this is a proof-of-concept, only one was constructed. Our initial concept was to place 5 probes 100m apart to provide a 500m-wide grid of probes to increase our chance of a direct hit. Having just a single probe makes a direct hit nearly impossible.
How can you help?
Right now, the only help we need is operational cost. If you can help us with this expense, we can increase the number of opportunities for deployment. If you are interested in supporting us, hit the donate button!
References
Kosiba, K., & Wurman, J. (2023). The strongest winds in tornadoes are very near the ground. Nature Communications Earth & Environment, 4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00716-6
LaDue, J. G. (2023). Standardizing methods of estimating wind speeds: The ASCE Wind Speed Estimation Committee.
Proceedings, 16th International Conference on Wind Engineering. https://web.aimgroupinternational.com/2023/icwe/papers/ICWE2023_AbstractSubmission-606_2023-01-31%2003_51_05.pdf
Lombardo, F. T. et al. (2015). Estimating Wind Speeds in Tornadoes and other Windstorms: Development of an
ASCE Standard. Proceedings, 14th International Conference on Wind Engineering. https://www.nist.gov/publications/estimating-wind-speeds-tornadoes-and-other-windstorms-development-asce-standard
Samaras, T. M. & Lee, J. J. (2012). Measuring Tornado Dynamics with In-Situ Instrumentation. Proceedings, Structures Congress 2006. https://doi.org/10.1061/40889(201)12
Sills, D. M. L., Kopp, G. A., Elliott, L., Jaffe, A., Sutherland, E., Miller, C., Kunkel, J., Hong, E., Stevenson, S., & Wang, W. (2020). The Northern Tornadoes Project - uncovering Canada’s true tornado climatology. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101, E2113–E2132. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0012.1
Sills, D. M. L., & Miller, C. S. (2026). Multi-Level In-Situ Measurements During a Direct Hit by a Significant Tornado. Atmosphere-Ocean, 64(1), 47–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/07055900.2025.2554837
Wurman, J., & Gill, S. (2000). Finescale radar observations of the Dimmitt, Texas (2 June 1995), tornado. Monthly Weather Review, 128, 2135–2164. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0493(2000)128<2135:FROOTD>2.0.CO;2
Wurman, J., Kosiba, K., White, T., & Robinson, P. (2021). Supercell tornadoes are much stronger and wider than damage-based ratings indicate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 118, e2021535118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2021535118
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