New High-Tech Camera Makes Storm Tracking Easier

A new high-tech tool in our arsenal is helping News On 6 track storms even better when the weather turns severe at night.

“In Oklahoma City their bad weather occurs during the day, while the sun is still up and you can see,” says News On 6 Storm Tracker Darren Stephens. “90% of the time here in Eastern Oklahoma our stuff comes at night time.”

Stephens has been tracking storms for the News On 6 weather team for 15 years. He has spent the past couple of years researching FLIR cameras, looking for the best one that would give us an edge when tornadoes develop at night.

“Unless you have a storm that is backlit by lightning, it is virtually impossible to verify there's a tornado in there,” Stephens says.

The new camera now mounted on his truck has full 360° rotation, plus pan and tilt.

“If it has no lightning to it, we're going to be able to look in this storm and be able to report back to the weather center if we see a tornado or not, Stephens says. “100% we're going to be able to tell, where as in the past, you just happened to look at it and catch it between lightning strikes.”

Stephens says the new camera is still in a testing phase, but so far he believes it could be a game changer for storm tracking in Northeastern Oklahoma.

“It's going to take tornado warnings to a whole different level,” says Stephens. “We hope that this provides an additional level of safety to our viewers. We want to save lives, that's what we want to do with this.”