Oklahoma Tornado Coverage Is The Best Show On TV

We pretty much go through this every year, with as much excited anticipation as anxiety. Storm season across Oklahoma brings three things. Amazing displays of nature, a million quotes in the heat of the moment from Twister, and live coverage that is second to none in the world.

Now, America has recovered from its addiction to reality TV during this decade, but it lives on, evolved in Oklahoma. Very different from how it used to be.

Back when those houses in your neighborhood used to just be woods and fields, live weather coverage was pretty basic. Everywhere across Oklahoma, with the exception of Tulsa, they still did wall-to-wall tornado coverage, but it looked a lot different.

Meteorologist legend Gary England was the star of the show, and it was simple. Gary on the screen, a few cutaways to maps and radar, and storm chasers made their appearance via those huge 90s cellular bag phones. They were bricks, but they worked like a champ.

Even if they weren't limited by the technology of their day, the coverage would likely still not be the same as it is now.

Today, weather coverage is as much personality and entertainment-driven as anything else on TV, but better in every scientific and public safety sort of way, and the star of the show is Gary England's successor, David Payne.

David is like the crazy uncle at your average family gathering. Always popping off the most random, hilarious, and off-the-wall soundbites, all while confidently describing what is happening in the moment and doing his best to provide life-saving information in the heat of battle. Sometimes he's casually calm in the worst situations, other times he gets a little excited, but it's always entertaining.

@1oftheboysfromoklahoma Tornado season in Ooooooklahoma! Go grab granny from the casino and be safe people. #tornado #storm #letsgo #oklahoma #davidpayne @David Payne ♬ Breaking News! - TheTrend

The bigger difference between then and now is how storm chasing meshes with the studio coverage. Live feeds from all over the state, up to and in the moment things are happening, and the storm chasers seem to have more freedom to be themselves now, rather than "official, stern newscasters." And it works. Really well.

Like in most places of business, whether you're on a sales team or wearing dirty jeans in a welding shop, there's a little bit of friendly competition and trash talking that goes on between the storm chasers. It adds to the entertainment of the whole show.  

@marinkyvpeg #oklahoma #news9okdavidpayne #tornado #weathertok ♬ original sound - 2bran_mar2

As amazed as our weather pioneers like Gary England would be with the technology of today, he'd most likely be a little stuffy about how it's all put together on air these days. Thankfully, David Payne's team and the corporate overlords that rule them seem to understand the coverage is better than anything you'll find on Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, or any other streaming platform.

It's raw, real, frightening, and hilarious all at the same time. If you're outside of the coverage area of the News9 team, they do have an app that streams this coverage as it happens. I'm sure you can find it yourself.