'Terrible Twisters' and 'Thunder Lizard:' Gary England’s enduring bond with Oklahoma communities

The crowd roared like a sold-out concert. Gary England stepped onto the stage, and Oklahoma audiences—some in school gyms, others in packed auditoriums—rose to their feet. It wasn’t a rock show. It was a tornado safety demonstration.

England’s wildly popular “Terrible Twisters” weather shows became a one-of-a-kind experience across the state, drawing thousands with live weather footage, booming sound systems, and his unmistakable charm.

“To hear the roar go up at a Twister show when Gary England walks out… it’s a full-blown, high-dollar show,” a colleague said in News 9’s 1997 tribute to England’s 25 years on air.

Watch the full special here:

But in true Gary fashion, the spectacle started small.

“There were two people sitting up about three rows back in their auditorium,” a producer recalled. “About 6:30, there were still those two people… and about 6:45 they started filing in and run that sucker over.”

From those humble beginnings, the shows grew into a phenomenon. “I couldn’t believe that people would want to come and watch video of tornadoes,” one colleague admitted. “I thought, what is going on? Do they think Gary’s a rock star or something?”

England’s off-air adventures only strengthened that public connection. During his early years on radio, he famously invented a fictional weather-tracking device called the “Thunder Lizard.”

“We did things with that lizard,” he said. “I’d come out in the morning and say that 805-pound Thunder Lizard had been spotted at mile marker whatever it is on Interstate 40, and people would stop and call in and say they’d seen it. To me, it was just fantastic.”

Even his pet pig, Spike, became a statewide celebrity.

“I called [Mary] up and said, look, we got a new pet, get a litter box… She thought we had a cat. So I brought this pig home,” Gary said. “The pig was litter box trained. Now you’ve seen a cat in a litter box. The pig does not look normal in a litter box.”

Spike quickly became the main attraction. “Very quickly, Spike began to get more invitations than any of us. They didn’t want us to come and speak anymore—they wanted Spike.”

But through the laughter and spectacle, the mission never changed. Gary England wanted to meet people face to face—to make the science personal, to answer questions, and to hear Oklahomans’ own tornado stories.

“That’s who Gary is,” a colleague said. “He’s really just talking to the people—his friends out there.”

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