“As a kid, I was terrified of thunderstorms,” says Guelph, Ont.-based meteorologist Mark Robinson. “I used to hide under my bed because I was scared of them. But I think what you fear as a kid fascinates you as an adult.” It wasn’t until Robinson was in his 20s, studying at the University of Guelph, that he began chasing storms in southern Ontario as a hobby. That hobby evolved into a full-time job as a meteorologist with the Weather Network, where he’s also a co-host of the show StormHunters. “Storms are incredible to watch,” he says. “They’re an absolutely unbelievable force of nature.”
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Robinson’s work with StormHunters has taken him across the world, from Mount Everest to Africa, Greenland to the Antarctic. But he’s most passionate about reporting on weather patterns on home turf, where his work helps keep Canadians safe—including his own family members. In 2022, when Robinson was in Guelph chasing a derecho event—a line of overlapping, severe thunderstorms—he frantically phoned his mother and his daughter who were at the family cottage on Wollaston Lake near Bancroft, Ont., since the storm was moving in their direction. “I was calling them, yelling, ‘Get in the basement!’ ” Robinson recalls. “We got lucky that the storm didn’t hit the cottage directly. But it was right across the lake.”
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Cottage country can be a particularly challenging place to escape storms because dense forests block the view of oncoming weather patterns. Boaters are often in the most danger. “If you’re out on the lake and there’s a thunderstorm approaching, keep in mind that lightning can travel really far outside of the storm,” Robinson warns. “We always say: ‘When thunder roars, go indoors.’ ”
This article was originally published in the August 2023 issue of Cottage Life.
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