College of Education and Behavioral Sciences News

London, Ky. – Kentucky Mesonet – the Commonwealth’s official weather and climate monitoring network whose offices are based at Western Kentucky University, is now two-thirds of the way to its goal of having at least one station in all 120 counties in the state. Officials gathered Monday to cut the ribbon at Mesonet’s 86th site in its 80th county (Laurel) in London, Ky. 

The site, which first appeared online in November, came about through a partnership with Laurel County Public Schools and Kentucky Mesonet. The Laurel County Center for Innovation, which operates within the county’s public school system, serves as site host, with its principal, Kate Ray, doing the honors of cutting the ribbon. 

The automated station’s 10-meter tower includes sensors that measure standard weather parameters such as temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, and barometric pressure. The station also includes a precipitation gauge as well as solar panels measuring solar radiation. In addition, soil probes, which measure soil temperature and moisture at varying depths to 40 inches below the surface, have been installed. All data at the Laurel County station is collected by all sensors each minute, updates in real-time every five minutes via the network’s website (www.kymesonet.org) as well as the Kentucky Mesonet app for iOS and Android devices, archived to create an official climate record for London, Ky. 

Dr. Jerry Brotzge, Mesonet Director and State Climatologist, said the new site will support the community in several ways.

“This station will forever define and quantify your history,” Dr. Broztge said. “We quickly forget the past and how severe the past can be. Weather records allow us to compare the present with the past, keeping us honest and true of our recollections.”

“From this history, we learn how past generations dealt with adversity and overcame once-in-a-generation heat and cold, floods and droughts,” Dr. Brotzge added.

Dr. David Brown, Dean of WKU’s Ogden College of Science and Engineering, also addressed the crowd, speaking on the importance of the Laurel County site’s role in commerce, given its proximity to one of the state’s busiest thoroughfares: Interstate 75. 

“Laurel County’s place on that major freeway means it is also part of an important route of transportation of goods within the eastern U.S., providing a boost not only for trade but also for recreation and local tourism, thanks to boating and fishing at Laurel River Lake.”

Dr. Brown added that data gathered by the site can be used by transportation officials to help determine road conditions in adverse conditions such as flash floods, winter weather and severe thunderstorms. He also stressed the importance of further growth of the Kentucky Mesonet, highlighting “a denser network of research-grade instrumentation and sensors also helps us better understand our state’s weather patterns and climate variability, which can have significant implications on strategic planning for investments for both the public and private sectors.”

Other officials present who spoke at the podium included Jerry Rains, Director of Emergency Management for Laurel and Whitley counties, and Dustin Jordan, Meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service office in Jackson, Ky. Both Rains and Jordan emphasized how crucial the site’s real-time information can be during times of active weather.  

The Laurel County Center for Innovation, which operates within the county’s public school system, serves as site host for the county. 

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

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 87 stations in 81 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 Innovation Campus every five minutes, 24 hours per day, throughout the year. The data are available online at www.kymesonet.org and via the Kentucky Mesonet app for mobile devices. 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

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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.