FIRST Televised Doppler Radar Warning - Elmore City, OK
Posted by: 
hamquilter
N 34° 37.356 W 097° 23.784
14S E 647006 N 3832361
This plaque documents a critical piece of Oklahoma weather history.
Waymark Code: WMZ62E
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 09/15/2018
Views: 0
Gary England, born in western Oklahoma in 1939 was fascinated with weather and photography as a young boy. He went on to get a degree in Mathematics and Meteorology and went to work for Oklahoma City television station KWTV in 1972. Over his career he covered more than 2,000 tornadoes, and won two Emmy Awards: 1994 Best Weather Anchor and 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award. Gary was a household fixture, with his quirky expressions, and calmness under pressure.
When he first began televising, there were virtually no weather gadgets to predict or track weather, but Gary had an innate ability to forecast, often predicting severe weather before the National Weather Service. In 1974, he convinced the TV station owners to buy a Doppler Radar system that was new and being experimented with. In 1982, he became the first forecaster in history to use Doppler radar and began issuing tornado warnings before the Weather Service. In 1991, the station purchased a Doppler system that included a computer to interpret data. They began to be able to predict tornado paths and timing.
In front of the Elmore City Community Center, a bronze plaque documents this new innovation. It reads:
March 15, 1982
Gary England of KWTV
Issued the FIRST Television
Doppler Radar Tornado Warning
when a Developing Tornado is
Visually Confirmed By the
Elmore City Police Department
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