The dome on the Idaho Falls Skycam gets replaced

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI)- A tool our meteorologists and forecasters use at Local News 8 got a much-needed upgrade. The dome of the sky cam on our antenna tower was replaced, by a crew with thirty years of experience in climbing towers like it.

Gary Shatto is an experienced tower climber. His task on Sunday was climbing the antenna tower which stands at 300 feet. The tower in the Local News 8 backyard is 5 feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty in New York City which stands at 305 feet.

"I climb TV towers, and radio towers all over the world. We're bringing broadcast towers. people. But, don't have cable. Two of the guys got to go. India. We did a thing for the Indian government over there. And, we go like Peru and, Puerto Rico, and, yeah, but mostly we work on the eastern seaboard. That's where we spend our life. Mostly is all up and down the eastern seaboard," Shatto said.

Shatto says he enjoys his job because of the thrill he gets as he climbs, but the views he gets to see along the way are pretty good too.

"It's going to be cold. Yeah, but other than that, the views are amazing," Shatto said.

Micheal Coats says the skycam is an important tool in the weather crew's toolbox.

"We use our sky cams around here to give us, an accurate look at what's happening with the weather. And also to see if there's any, breaking news that we can see from those sky cams. So they've become valuable over the years. So we placed more across the region," Coats said.

The process for replacing the lens dome on the sky cam took a little over an hour Sunday morning to complete. And it should already be giving a clearer picture than it was before.