WKU News

Pictured at Thursday’s ribbon-cutting from left to right: Patrick Robinson, Clay County Sheriff; Donna White, County Secretary; Makayla Dobbs, County Treasurer; Russell Smith, County Magistrate; Jerry Combs, County Magistrate; Bill Warren, County Magistrate; Donna McClure, field representative for U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell; Tommy Harmon, Clay County Judge-Executive; Rodney Wagers, Clay County Emergency Manager; Sonya Gray, County Magistrate; Revelle Berry, Clay County Assistant Emergency Manager; Dustin Jordan, NWS Jackson; Dr. Jerry Brotzge, Mesonet Director; and Shane Holinde, Outreach Manager for Kentucky Mesonet.

Kentucky Mesonet – the official weather and climate monitoring network for the Commonwealth – held a special ceremony to christen the first of five new stations added to its network in 2025. Officials cut the ribbon on its 81^st station, located ten miles east of Manchester, at the Clay County Court House Thursday afternoon.

Clay County’s Mesonet site, which first appeared online in March of 2025, came about through a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture in collaboration with Western Kentucky University’s Kentucky Climate Center, which houses Mesonet. Six years ago, the three organizations embarked on a three-year project that collected routine measurement of soil moisture in the Daniel Boone National Forest. A soil micronet of over 30 sensors was deployed across five sample areas in the vicinity, representing a wide range of landscape positions and aspects.

An existing tower at the Redbird Ranger District near the community of Peabody now serves as a fully automated weather-measuring station for Mesonet. The network’s field technicians fitted the tower with sensors and instrumentation that collect real-time air temperature, relative humidity, along with wind speed and direction. Solar panels, a precipitation gauge, as well as underground probes that collect soil moisture and temperature data, were also installed.

“Mesonet data will forever define our community history,” said Dr. Jerry Brotzge, Director of Mesonet and State Climatologist for Kentucky. “This Mesonet station will set records for heat and cold, wind, floods and drought. And as such, it will forever etch these historical markers into the public record.”

“The Mesonet also contextualizes our history,” Brotzge continued. “We quickly forget the past and how severe the past can be, and we tend to over dramatize recent events. Weather records allow us to compare the present with the past, keeping us honest and true in our recollections. And from this history, we learn how past generations dealt with adversity and overcame once-in-a-generation floods and droughts. And from these lessons learned, we become more prepared and resilient.”

Brotzge added that the network supports and represents a brighter future, one more economically efficient and more prepared, with much-improved weather forecasts, better warning lead times, along with more efficient farming, safer transportation, as well as more efficient energy production and new educational opportunities. 

Clay County Judge-Executive Tommy Harmon hosted Thursday’s ceremony, which was attended by numerous county officials. Dustin Jordan, acting Meteorologist-in-Charge of the National Weather Service in Jackson, KY, was among the speakers. Donna McClure, field representative for U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, was also in attendance.  

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 86 stations in 80 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. 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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