WKU News

Kentucky Mesonet – a vast network of fully-automated weather and climate monitoring stations – celebrated not one but two milestones Friday morning, the ribbon cutting at station number 80 in southern Green County and the 75th county in Kentucky to include at least one Mesonet site. 

The Green County Mesonet station, which first appeared online in October, consists of a 33-foot tower with weather-measuring instrumentation that measures air temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, wind speed and direction, air pressure, as well as solar radiation. In addition, the site includes probes that collect soil moisture and soil temperature. 

Land for the site was donated by Thomas and Chasity Price.

“These stations provide real-time data, which are archived as the official climate record for Kentucky," said Dr. Jerry Brotzge, state climatologist and Director of Mesonet. “The Mesonet data is made available to partners such as the National Weather Service, who ingests that data into their operational models, thereby providing more improved weather prediction across all of Kentucky. The data is also used for issuing weather alerts and warnings.”

“This site helps to fill one of the last remaining holes for the network in south-central Kentucky,” President Timothy Caboni said. “It sits just a few miles west of Green River Lake, a popular tourist attraction for many across central Kentucky and beyond.”

“By providing soil temperature and soil moisture data, the Kentucky Mesonet plays a significant role in assisting those in agriculture and horticulture, including decisions pertaining to planting, fertilizing and harvesting times,” President Timothy Caboni added.

The Kentucky General Assembly has invested $1.75 million annually into Kentucky Mesonet since 2022. The funding helps to maintain and grow one of the nation’s most vast weather networks, with the goal of establishing at least one station in all 120 counties in the Commonwealth. 

Attendees at Friday’s ribbon-cutting included Dr. Jerry Brotzge; President Timothy C. Caboni; Dave Brown, Dean of WKU Ogden College of Science and Engineering; State Senator David Givens; State Representative Ryan Bivens; Ricky Arnett, Green County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources; Dr. Stuart Foster, former Mesonet director/state climatologist and Mesonet advisory board member; Gary Larimore, Mesonet advisory board member; as well as Tiffany Clark, Gavin Connors, Andrew Quilligan, and Shane Holinde, all of Kentucky Mesonet. 

About the Kentucky Mesonet at WKU: The Kentucky Mesonet at WKU is the Commonwealth’s official source for weather and climate data. The statewide network includes 80 stations in 75 counties. The Mesonet stations collect real-time data on air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, precipitation, solar radiation, wind speed and direction and transmit it to the Kentucky Mesonet Operations Center at the WKU Center for Research and Development every five minutes, 24 hours per day, throughout the year. The data is available online at www.kymesonet.org. Dr. Jerry Brotzge serves as Director of the Kentucky Mesonet at WKU and Kentucky Climate Center. The project was initially funded with a $2.9 million federal grant for the Kentucky Climate Center, part of WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program. The first station was installed at the WKU Farm in May 2007. In recent years, staff have been working to build a broad base of support across Kentucky to continue development and maintenance of the network. The 2022 biennial budget approved by the General Assembly added $1 million to the Kentucky Mesonet, bringing total state funding to $1,750,000 each year.

Contact: Dr. Jerry Brotzge, (270) 745-4567

 - WKU -

Western Kentucky University prides itself on positioning its students, faculty and staff for long term success. As a student-centered, applied research university, WKU helps students expand on classroom learning by integrating education with real-world applications in the communities we serve. Our hilltop campus is located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which was recently named by Reader’s Digest as one of the nicest towns in America, just an hour’s drive from Nashville, Tennessee.