NEW YORK—Fox Weather has unveiled the first of a fleet of weather trucks dubbed “Fox Weather Beasts” and announced plans to eventually deploy four trucks.
Two will be stationed in Nashville, one in Miami and one in Atlanta to chase severe weather.
Viewers got their first look on April 12 at one of the vehicles in New York City while meteorologist Steve Bender was on Fox Weather and Fox & Friends.
“This is the first of four and that's going to be in our fleet,” Bender explained during the segment, which can be seen here. “This is going to be leaving New York City to go to the storms we just talked about in the central plains. It's going to do those tornado disaster sites. Let’s talk about this F-250. It’s lifted, so that gives us access to some of those areas where we see the widespread destruction or the potential with that water that's on the roads. It's really what's up top, Janice. That's what we are excited about here. We have this satellite dish, that is important because you think about the last hurricane season, Hurricane Ida, it knocked out the cell towers. There's no way to get signal out, we put this up, we can continue to stream on Fox Weather.”
The Fox Weather Beast is built on a Ford F-250 Chassis that is designed to handle all types of weather conditions. It will be equipped with KU Satellite that will allow the reporters to go live from anywhere they are reporting from, regardless of conditions on the ground.
The Fox Weather Beasts will also have a rear pull-out 4K monitor, live weather tracking from the Fox Forecast Center to the truck and an onboard Airmar weather station.
Additionally, the Fox Weather Beast will have Live Drive Cams that allow viewers to see active weather while the truck is on the move. It also comes equipped with Hi-Brite monitors.
Other tech features for the weather trucks include:
- Fox Weather Beast will have a roof mounted PTZ Camera.
- The trucks will also be equipped with Pan Tilt Zoom and POV cameras.
- The truck itself will have oversized AT tires, custom bumpers, a structural bedcap, dual tied storage shelves, a 385 Horsepower V8 engine, an 8 Kilowatt inverter and a backup battery pack to provide power for up to 12 hours in the event the truck is ever in an area without power.
- The onboard Airmar mobile weather station can measure temperature, humidity, dew point and wind speed while on location.
