ATLANTA — UPDATE: Since this story was published, the StormTracker ThunderTruck received a new look! Below you'll find the story of when 11Alive first launched the ThunderTruck. Click here to see the new and improved truck that hit the streets in 2020!
After years of school visits, hundreds of hours of storm tracking, and thousands of miles on the road, the old 11Alive weather van is out of service. Now, it’s time for a major upgrade!
We're excited to introduce the 11Alive StormTracker ThunderTruck. This is a weather station on wheels. It is equipped with the latest weather equipment allowing us to get the latest weather information and conditions while we are out chasing the storms. It also allows us to broadcast live while rolling down the road.
1st look at the StormTracker Truck
It has a windshield camera, a camera pointing toward the StormTracker in the passenger seat, and a 360 bubble cam on top of the truck. We can control that camera from inside the truck. It will do an entire 360-degree scan of the surroundings. This will enable us to pinpoint and track storms no matter what direction we are driving. It also has enhanced zoom capabilities to help us pinpoint features in the clouds, or even zoom in to storm damage after a strong system has moved through. This setup lets us see weather conditions from all angles.
The truck is equipped with two weather stations so we can double check weather conditions where the truck is located. We can get accurate current temperatures, wind speeds, barometric pressure, dewpoints and other weather parameters directly from the truck. This will be valuable information as we line up ahead of a line of storms to track conditions as it passes. The GPS-equipped truck will help us see our exact location in relation to the storms. If we stop on a chase, we can pop open the cover on the bed of the truck and a flat screen TV will automatically rise up out of the bed to display our weather telemetry data onscreen. We can do live shots back to the station and to your TV showing those specific weather conditions on that screen.
This 4-wheel drive truck will allow us to get into areas that we wouldn’t be able to get to in a regular vehicle. We will be able to maneuver through storm damaged areas with that capability. The StormTracker ThunderTruck will also help us get through snow conditions and winter weather events.
And did we mention? It also has a Hemi!
