Gary England, best known as former chief meteorologist at KWTV-9, the CBS affiliate in Oklahoma City has passed away at the age of 85. He was chief meteorologist at the station from 1973 to 2013.

He also made a cameo appearance in the opening scene of the incredible movie Twister where archived footage of his real-life coverage of a severe weather event in 1973 was used to depict the warning that Jo's father saw on TV prior to their farm being practically obliterated by an "F5" tornado in 1969, although Jo's dad uses the words "TV says it's big, might be an F5" as they flee their house for their storm cellar, the original Fujita scale for measuring tornado intensity wasn't even conceived until the early 1970s. You can watch the footage used in that scene here. In real life in 1969, he was working at A.H Glenn & Associates in New Orleans; a marine forecasting firm.

In 1981 he pioneered the use of Doppler radar to more accurately determine the strength of thunderstorms, their potential severity and even more importantly to detect rotation indicative of tornadic potential in a more accurate and timely manner than conventional weather radars of the time. The system was sold by a firm called Enterprise Electronics. For years after that, it was common for the station to issue their very own warnings independently until official National Weather Service warnings improved in the 1990s, when their radar systems caught up.

The station has historically been a progressive adopter of new technologies that have aided the warning and information dissemination processes during severe and high-impact weather in their market, and their competitors have been kept on their toes too.

To keep a long story relatively short, much of how severe weather is covered by traditional and "new" media today is heavily derived from techniques developed by him and his colleagues at the station from the 1970s to the early 2010s. From state-of-art radars to very early photo relays and live video streaming from out in the field, he was a true legend in meteorology and will be greatly missed by me and countless others.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/gary-england-obituary?pid=209225045

https://www.news9.com/category/6849911a4420d3766df3f145/remembering-gary-england