The Team
Administration
Adam S.
Founder and Director
On April 18th, 2013, Adam came face to face with a EF-1 tornado (175km/h wind speeds) while storm chasing near Melancthon, ON that launched a 7,500 square foot commercial horse stable roof at his vehicle. Thankfully, Adam escaped without injury and met up with Adam Clarke and Dave Patrick for the first time at the damage site. Adam invited Clarke and Patrick to join a new Facebook page he had the idea to start called "Ontario Tornado Watch". At the end of 2013, Skinner launched a weather technology company and successful Indiegogo app campaign called Tornado GPS. The app evolved into the fastest severe weather Text Message Alerts in Canada and that same system now powers Instant Weather.
Adam C.
Co-founder of OTW
Adam was one of the founders of Ontario Tornado Watch, he is a programmer and he is also an avid storm spotter reporting what the storm is doing on the ground so alerts can be more detailed and accurate.
De B.
Alberta Moderator
Content
Jake C.
Digital Media Lead
Jake joined our team in late 2017 as a graphic designer. Since then he has taken on the role of Digital Media Lead, which means he creates most graphics you see on the pages, edits our videos, and manages our website. Jake also creates and updates all of the banners on the pages each season change.
In his free time, Jake enjoys watching cat videos and producing television with his local YourTV (a division of Cogeco) station where he also volunteers.
Jennifer F.
Video production
Jennifer loves to connect with people over something we Canadians love to talk about, the weather. It effects us all, our moods, our routines, our health, our lives. Jennifer reported the weather for CTV for 15 years and loves to share all the information people need to plan and enjoy everyday. She enjoys the outdoors, traveling and oh ya, like all Canadians, talking about the weather.
Forecasting
Brennen P.
Lead Forecaster, Content Creator, Administration
Alannah C.
Forecaster, Content Creator, Administration
Alannah joined our team at Instant Weather in August 2017 as a Forecaster. Although she is based in Ontario, she creates custom forecasts for Newfoundland and Alberta. On top of forecasting, Alannah has an active role in Content Creation and Business Operations.
Her love for weather started at a young age when she began researching severe weather in order to overcome her childhood fear of thunderstorms. That fear quickly turned into fascination for all types of meteorological and geological natural disasters.
Alannah received her Bachelor's Degree in Earth & Atmospheric Science from the University of Guelph in 2014 and she is currently in her third year at Mississippi State University for the Broadcast and Operational Meteorology program.
Andrew M.
Storm Chaser
Andrew, who joined the team in 2018 as a storm chaser, is dedicated to providing video documentation of severe weather in southern Ontario. In 2015, he participated in a storm chasing tour of Tornado Alley, where he was fortunate to witness a pair of EF-2 tornadoes in Texas. From this moment onward, he has diligently learned about severe weather to fuel his ultimate passion of chasing the Great Lakes region.
Harry S.
Forecaster, Storm Chaser
Mike S.
Forecaster
Mike joined the team of PEI Blizzard Watch in the fall of 2015. After having witnessed the F4 tornado that went through Woodstock, Ontario in August 1979, he has been fascinated with extreme weather.
Growing up and living in Southern Ontario until the mid 90’s, his love for thunderstorms grew greater.
In the late 90’s, Mike moved to Atlantic Canada. After experiencing a few winters in Moncton, New Brunswick, he moved with his family to start a job at a transportation company in Prince Edward Island.
With thunderstorms not as prominent in Atlantic Canada, his love turned toward Nor Easter’s and extreme winter weather systems.
As a forecaster for the three Atlantic Canada pages, he has loved the ability to watch the weather and provide information to those who like the pages.
Jason B.
Meteorologist, Forecaster, Content Creator, Storm Chaser
Jason Brand joined the team in 2015 as a content advisor. He received a degree in Meteorology from Mississippi State University in 2016. Originally from Jackson, Mississippi, Jason grew up in the heart of ‘Dixie Alley’ and from an early age had a passion for all types of weather. Jason’s passion for severe weather took him storm spotting across the US from ‘Dixie Alley’ and ‘The Great Plains’ to the Canadian and Mexican borders in search of violent tornadoes. He has logged over 250,000 miles on the road intercepting monster supercells and over 30 tornadoes! He has been within ¼ mile of EF4 tornadoes that were several miles wide and was able to do this safely due to extensive training from skilled Meteorologists and with the help of his chase team. Jason was the first live broadcaster of a violent tornado on-air in Mississippi for a local TV station and this occurred during the “Super Outbreak” of 2011.
Jason also has a degree in Paramedic & Fire Sciences, is a retired Firefighter, Paramedic, and Emergency Management Director/Specialist with over 10,000+ hours of education and field experience. He has been trained extensively from the National Weather Service, Conferences, and private companies like Baron Weather Technologies where he was able to learn from experts like Dr. Les Lemon (lemon technique) and top Meteorologist and NASA scientists in the country. He also created city and county wide weather warning disaster readiness plans that went on to win awards for the first ‘StormReady’ city in Mississippi. He then went on to get another degree; a B.S. in Geosciences from MSU focusing on their operational Meteorology degree.
His areas of expertise include radar analysis, severe storm forecasting, tropical weather, blizzards, and large-scale systems/disasters. Currently, he is focusing his efforts on helping the team produce forecasts, severe weather content, storm analysis, scientific support, and driving the content for all 50 state weather pages in the US.
Devon C.
Forecaster
Devon joined Instant Weather in January 2018 as a forecaster and storm chaser. Based out of Barrie, he was one of the first to report the Lucan tornado in July 2017 and has been fascinated by weather since an early age.
One of his fondest memories is sitting in his garage with his father, watching the skies as thunderstorms went by. Devon is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics and Atmospheric Science along with a Diploma in Meteorology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS.
Andrew R.
Forecaster
Dominic G.
Forecaster
Jong K.
Forecaster
Moderation
Lesley T.
Moderator
Lesley joined the Instant Weather team as a Moderator in the summer of 2017. While she was always fascinated by the weather, having been in the Edmonton area during the Black Friday tornado of July 31, 1987, only helped to fuel her passion for learning about severe weather.
Over the years, Lesley has participated in a local TV station’s GroundForce team and has recently become Skywarn Certified, all so she can update people when severe weather is on its way…and is very excited to do so now with IWC followers!
Her hobbies include photography, storm chasing and off-roading in her trusty Jeep, working through MetED courses to learn even more about amazing world of meteorology, and of course spending time with her very understanding husband (especially during storm season) and three crazy cats.
Sabrina Z.
Moderator
