Transcript
Jessica : you
Alexis: Hello, welcome to the podcast where we know a lot about plants and a little bit about technology.
Plant People: Very little bit about technology.
Alexis: have
Plant People: Normally this program that we use to bring the podcast to you is relatively trouble-free, but that's relatively trouble-free.
Alexis: Well, we have the unpredictable weather that is Kentucky, and it only is fitting that our guest today is the is the man, the myth, the legend, as promised.
Plant People: Very unpredictable today.
Brett: The man, the meteorologist, the legend.
Matt Dixon: ah
Plant People: This is the hop crew today, man.
Alexis: This is the most hype we've ever given for anybody, Matt. We're so excited.
Plant People: I know.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: What about that?
Alexis: You have your own app, so...
Brett: I was telling people that you were going to be on this.
Jessica : My dad might actually.
Brett: Oh, yeah, your dad's a fan, right?
Plant People: We're excited.
Matt Dixon: Very cool, very cool.
Jessica : I was going to say my dad might actually listen to one of these finally, like not even when I was like a guest and then became like a co-host, like he might actually listen to this one because, because our guests today.
Brett: Yeah, so we're having Matt Dixon, and the people said, not not the Matt Dixon.
Alexis: and
Plant People: The Matt Dixon.
Brett: I said the very one.
Alexis: oh the the matt dixon of
Matt Dixon: The man.
Brett: The very one.
Jessica : of the Ag Weather Center.
Brett: We love your your forecast, your emails, your app. We're going to get into it, but we are big fans.
Plant People: Listen, people, he doesn't make the weather.
Matt Dixon: Very cool.
Plant People: He just reports on it. So don't blame him.
Matt Dixon: Yes. Don't blame me.
Plant People: Don't blame him.
Alexis: was
Matt Dixon: Don't throw tomatoes at me.
Plant People: that's
Jessica : But he does a good job.
Plant People: a
Brett: Uh-oh.
Plant People: Yes. Tomatoes from hort culture.
Alexis: saying you're pretty you're pretty accurate so in comparison to a lot of people
Jessica : Farmers, farmers everywhere appreciate you.
Matt Dixon: appreciate I appreciate it.
Alexis: It's the the first app I check. So listen, we we had a whole episode of about what farmers, ah like kind of day in the life of farmers. and we And the first thing was like, we wake up, we look at the weather and we check all of our weather apps.
Jessica : how many weather apps we have.
Alexis: And then it was like how many weather apps do you have? Which I'm now curious about. How many weather apps do you have?
Brett: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: It's a competition now. No, ah I got several on my phone, but honestly, my app's only one I use now just because there's no ads on it.
Jessica : um
Matt Dixon: And ah yeah, yeah.
Plant People: Oh, yes.
Brett: So powerful.
Plant People: That is the right answer.
Jessica : That's true. yeah
Plant People: Perfect.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Plant People: Perfect.
Brett: I love that.
Plant People: He's not going cast shade at anyone, not to make a weather pun.
Alexis: i I've probably been saved from multiple lightning strikes because your app is the only one that I allow pop-ups to come on and it says, hey, lightning's been detected in your area. And I'm like, I'm safe.
Matt Dixon: I'm safe.
Brett: Well, let's, let's lead, let's lead with an ad for your podcast.
Matt Dixon: Get in that car.
Brett: I mean, sorry, for your app. What is it called in case people are wanting to, to download, they get tired of the next episode of horticulture and they'd rather download your app.
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis: Look at the weather.
Brett: What's it called?
Matt Dixon: Now, it's called Kentucky Weather Alert. it It came together last, I guess it was March we finally released It was about a year in the making. But you can find on either app store, type in Kentucky Weather Alert,
Matt Dixon: It's a green lightning bolt a logo, easy to find. I will say we are competing with some of the higher downloaded apps out there. So just look for that green lightning logo and you'll be good to go.
Matt Dixon: so
Brett: It's only a competition in in their minds, not in the not the minds of the of the fans out there.
Matt Dixon: Yeah, yeah.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: So like you have an app, you're doing all this cool stuff. You're clearly have a certain celebrity status, at least with the nerds ah available here on this podcast. But like, what is your, I guess we can start with your title, but like, what is your actual job?
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Brett: Cause you are, you're affiliated with the university, right?
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: But you're also doing all this other stuff out in the world that is well beyond.
Matt Dixon: Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Dixon: Yeah, a little different from your typical meteorologist out there. You see on that 6 p.m. news broadcast or whatnot.
Alexis: Hmm.
Matt Dixon: I'm an agricultural meteorologist. I specifically work in Kentucky Extension. So I'm here to help the farmers, producers, your average Kentuckian across the state, mainly with their agricultural weather needs. But here the past five, 10 years, severe weather changes.
Matt Dixon: has ah come to the forefront. So helping, trying to keep people safe in these severe weather situations, whether it's winter weather, whether it's severe weather, ah you name it. But on the side, i I'll also work for Kentucky Athletics. I work the football games, making sure everyone's safe in the case of lightning entering the area, help out the university with closures during the winter months.
Matt Dixon: um Those big ice storms we saw in early January, there that's that's fun stuff. But yeah, my main job here, providing those tools and models, helping out Kentucky farmers and producers with their ag weather needs.
Alexis: They do need it and they do use it.
Jessica : oh
Plant People: That covers a lot of ground. That's a pretty broad scope of work.
Matt Dixon: Yeah, yeah.
Plant People: And I knew that Alexis and I were going to ask it. I won't ask her question, but I'm also very curious. Alexis said she was going to ask you.
Alexis: Uh.
Plant People: so we'll we'll have to share it, I guess.
Alexis: Oh yeah. so
Plant People: Alexis, yeah.
Alexis: first of all, I want to know how you got into meteorology.
Plant People: I always want to know.
Alexis: And part of that question is, were you chasing tornadoes in college? Because I feel like that goes along with it.
Matt Dixon: Well, first off, I have chased tornadoes, but here in Kentucky, i grew up in southwestern Indiana.
Plant People: Oh, okay. Yeah.
Matt Dixon: Indiana is the same way. Not necessarily the best place to chase tornadoes.
Alexis: Sure. Sure.
Matt Dixon: Out in Oklahoma and Kansas and whatnot, you can see the supercell coming from miles and miles away, but
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: not not really here in our neck of the woods but uh yeah i grew up in southwest indiana a little town called vincent's it's about our north of evansville and ah growing up i was always as interested in the weather in some capacity um especially severe weather tornadoes were fascinating to me while that was all happening i was working on a watermelon operation
Plant People: yeah
Matt Dixon: Uh, I love the farming aspect to toss watermelons, plant them. You named it. If I could be honestly, tell you guys the truth. If I could be tossing watermelons right now, that's what I'd be doing.
Matt Dixon: So, um,
Jessica : We love that.
Plant People: Well, maybe if the wind's blowing hard enough, the watermelons will toss themselves.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: yeah Yeah, there you go.
Plant People: I mean, maybe it relates to that.
Matt Dixon: There you go. But yeah, I had the agricultural side. i had the interest in weather. Back in 2005, there was at the time a F3 tornado that passed through the Evansville area.
Matt Dixon: And ah I don't know, ever since that event, it just kind of pushed me into the profession. And i ended up going to Purdue University. ah Boiler up, boiler up.
Matt Dixon: I tell everybody UK gives me a paycheck and I'll support UK, but I'm still bleeding black and gold in my veins. But got got my degree in atmospheric sciences there, went on to Mississippi State, got my graduate there and been at UK ever since 2012.
Alexis: <unk> fair fair
Matt Dixon: Arrived right in the middle of a drought that year. So that was a fun start to my tenure here.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: But ah yeah what, 27 more years till retirement? So that's awesome.
Alexis: no one's counting it's fine
Matt Dixon: So...
Plant People: Yeah, it's going to be a little while.
Brett: So we can put to rest rumors that the Glenn Powell character in Twisters was based on you.
Plant People: You.
Brett: i just i don't know if it was like a similarity or I don't know, but it was not.
Matt Dixon: Oh, oh, oh.
Matt Dixon: It's...
Brett: In fact, you were you were more of a watermelon man than ah and a cowboy.
Matt Dixon: Yeah, yeah, most definitely so. I just watched that movie a a couple days ago for probably the third time or whatnot.
Alexis: account
Jessica : Oh,
Matt Dixon: But, well, I'll tell you guys.
Plant People: For like research or...
Matt Dixon: Of course, I'm a weather nerd. i'm I'm all about those movies and everything. But I actually liked the second Twisters movie.
Alexis: Okay.
Matt Dixon: I don't know if you all have seen it yet, but they they put in a lot of safety messages in there for the public.
Jessica : well,
Alexis: Look at them go.
Brett: Yes, I noticed that.
Jessica : that's good.
Matt Dixon: Yes, they...
Plant People: Yeah, the old one was just every man for himself.
Brett: It felt like ah like a PSA integrated into a film.
Plant People: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: Exactly.
Brett: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: And I'm, I'm fully in support of that.
Plant People: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: I mean, um, in terms of safety messages, the facts were there, maybe the Hollywood stuff. I, yeah, don't know, but, but, uh, I, I thought they did all right job.
Matt Dixon: I appreciate those safety tips throughout the movie.
Jessica : Cool.
Matt Dixon: So yeah,
Alexis: It's like when we watch movies and we go, that plant doesn't grow there. That's not that's some right.
Jessica : Right.
Matt Dixon: yeah, yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Right. They are not filming in that actual location.
Plant People: The tree that's blowing by and the tornado, we're like, no, that tree's out of place.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Alexis: No, that doesn't grow in Kansas.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Alexis: That was a palm tree.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: Well, that explains, I guess, ah some of your watermelon background.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Plant People: It explains, because I know meteorology is a big field, and I guess that guided you specifically in, but but how is um like your your daily chores different being a meteorologist that primarily develops a lot of the information for farmers? like How is that different than just a general person that may be on the news or whatever, just in another field of meteorology?
Matt Dixon: Yeah, yeah. so I just go through the week. What I typically do here in Ag Weather Center, I'll start out my week. I write the USDA um crop progress and condition report, the weather summary for it.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: So I'm summarizing for farmers, producers what happened the past week. Of course, we started out April with ah a monsoonal type of storm system.
Jessica : yeah
Matt Dixon: um But the past two weeks, it's actually dried out, and farmers have really enjoyed that. But we're always working on tools and models in the background. We provide point ag forecasts that give farmers an idea of what spraying conditions will be like, drying conditions.
Alexis: Mm-mm.
Matt Dixon: Maybe you go to the livestock side, livestock heat stress, livestock cold stress. Getting that information out to the farmers because a lot of those folks out there, farming and producing,
Jessica : Right.
Matt Dixon: They won't get that information from your local 6 p.m.
Alexis: and
Matt Dixon: newscast. And even on top of that, we try to give high-resolution forecast data, so hour by hour instead of your general daily information.
Matt Dixon: So as a farmer, you want to know, when is that rain going to start? When is it going to stop?
Alexis: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: How much rain are we going to get?
Jessica : right
Matt Dixon: Is it going to keep me out of the fields the next
Alexis: yeah
Matt Dixon: uh, four or five days. What's soil temperatures like? Is it, is it okay for me to go put corn and beans in the ground? Are they going emerge, uh, within 10 days?
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: So, um, things of that nature. I'm, I'm really trying to help out the community. Horticulture, you all, I put in my newsletters, um, you know, frost freeze dates.
Matt Dixon: I know that's important to you all. I will say, ah and I don't want people to get out into the garden too quick, but i I'm about to play at my garden now. so
Plant People: Oh, yeah.
Matt Dixon: ah
Alexis: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: It's the forecast. We're in the 70s this week. ah Looking at the outlooks, they're very warm going out into early May.
Plant People: um one hand
Matt Dixon: So honestly, personally, by the time we get into May, our chance of having another freeze is, i don't want to say slim to none, but very low probability. And based on those outlooks, I'm kind of, I'm debating on going ahead and putting my warm season vegetables in the ground.
Plant People: I just talked about trying to beat my neighbor with tomatoes.
Matt Dixon: so
Brett: We were asking about that. Yeah.
Plant People: So now I've got the green light, you guys.
Jessica : Yeah, you got it.
Plant People: Let me tell you, I'm going to be visiting a local greenhouse this afternoon. Be like, Matt said this is fine.
Matt Dixon: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Alexis: Yeah, yeah.
Plant People: But yeah, it looks like the extended forecast, a lot of warm weather looks like here.
Matt Dixon: Yeah, yeah.
Plant People: on ah
Matt Dixon: I've been getting antsy and yeah.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: Excited.
Matt Dixon: yeah
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Ooh!
Brett: Well, so i'm yeah before b before we continue on the weather, ah you know, this is a a podcast for people who love horticulture, love gardening.
Jessica : Okay.
Brett: what does Matt Dixon's garden look like?
Matt Dixon: ah what
Brett: I'm talking like, what's the, what's the, is this in ground of these raised beds?
Alexis: a o
Brett: What kind of crops are you growing?
Alexis: o
Matt Dixon: Well,
Brett: I mean, take, give us a picture.
Plant People: Now you're getting personal.
Matt Dixon: that's a good question. um So I have so much clay in my backyard. I had to go raise garden beds.
Alexis: Love it.
Matt Dixon: and i built three of them uh the past several years it's been tomatoes cucumbers peppers uh green beans have been big for us i will say i've tried i grew up growing watermelons and cantaloupe i can't grow them for the life of me in kentucky so yeah yeah they i mean back in vincent's we had sandy ground and it just thrived on the yeah
Plant People: I heard clay soil. So yeah, it may not be the most conducive. Yeah.
Plant People: Good for those vine crops.
Jessica : Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: yeah but uh around here not so much so uh disappointing but it is what it is i tried strawberries the past couple years but apparently i don't have a green thumb for that so i honestly ripped up all the strawberries and replaced it with warm season vegetables so yeah
Alexis: Fruit's weird, you know? It's it's okay.
Matt Dixon: yeah yeah
Plant People: Fruits its own thing. Once you get out of the vegetable world, it is a little bit tougher.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: It is.
Matt Dixon: But tomatoes seems pretty straightforward.
Jessica : hu
Matt Dixon: So that's probably best for me.
Plant People: And you, You mentioned, well, you you gave a timeframe when you first started talking. i was real curious. What did you say? Like the last five years, whether you referenced kind of weather events, big weather events.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: Is that like a more recent phenomenon or is that like a trend or or what's going on there?
Matt Dixon: So...
Plant People: Because there's this awareness that people have of a lot of big events have happened here recently. We get that question a lot.
Matt Dixon: Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you look at, there there's a um there's a website called the National Centers of Environmental Information, and they track billion-dollar disasters across the United States.
Matt Dixon: And if you look at the data, now these are big-time disasters, obviously, a billion dollars worth of damage, but... Those disasters are increasing in frequency across the U.S., and that includes the state of Kentucky individually.
Matt Dixon: So if you go from the eighty s to the 90s, 2010s to now now where we're at, we see the frequency of these disasters still increasing.
Plant People: Thank you.
Matt Dixon: On top of that, always always tell folks, we just 10-plus inches across western Kentucky a couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago, whatever it is now.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: Those type of events, not quite the 10, but maybe three to four inches here or there, ah big time rainfall event, we're seeing those happen more frequently throughout the year. And really with this warmer climate we've been seeing here the past decade, warmer air can hold more moisture.
Matt Dixon: So if a storm develops, we can see more heavy rainfall produced from that storm. So back when I was a kid, Indiana, you saw a one, two inch rainfall event.
Matt Dixon: That was a big time storm.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah. Yeah.
Jessica : uh-huh
Matt Dixon: Now we're seeing one, two inch rainfall events all the time.
Jessica : huh
Matt Dixon: And it's the three to four inch rainfall events that are really causing issues.
Plant People: yeah
Matt Dixon: But, you know, the past five years, 10 years, we saw the thousand year rainfall event across Eastern Kentucky couple years ago.
Alexis: yeah
Matt Dixon: Um, those thousand year rainfall events, there are thousand year rainfall events, but they're happening more frequently. St. Louis got hit the day before by a thousand year rainfall event. Um, you guys might saw the news.
Matt Dixon: i think it was 2023 Loretta Lynn's ranch, West of Nashville got decimated by a thousand year rainfall event, but, um,
Alexis: and
Jessica : Right.
Matt Dixon: um Hurricane Helene moving through the Carolinas and Tennessee.
Alexis: yeah
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: um So these type of events, they're happening more frequently now. And I guess part my job is trying to get people prepared for these things, because even if you're out in Western Kentucky and not Eastern Kentucky, you're still going to see issues from 10 plus inches of rainfall.
Jessica : right
Matt Dixon: So, yeah.
Alexis: right
Plant People: It's unbelievable. I mean, are the models, is the technology keeping up with that? I know a lot of these things, you know, they're always evolving, but I mean, how are you guys as meteorologists, how are the tools changing to kind of meet this, these new patterns that you're seeing or these newer patterns?
Matt Dixon: Yeah, you know, I teach a class in biometeorology during the spring semester, and I always start out the class showing showing them where we were. and where we are now, and it's pretty amazing.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: I can't think of the name of it. My boss, he got here in the early 80s, and he was teaching his class with these little projector slides. I don't know what it is, but um if you put it up to the light, you can see a radar image.
Plant People: Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Dixon: You talk about pixelated, oh my gosh. And compared to where where we are now today, radar capabilities, our satellite imagery has taken another leap.
Jessica : Thank you.
Matt Dixon: And our models, high resolution models, have again taken another step. But the way technology is advancing, the way we're going to be using AI here in the future years, it yeah, yeah.
Plant People: I was just going to ask, how does AI play into all of this and things like modeling and predictions? I mean, is that part of it that's evolving too?
Matt Dixon: and it's it's part of it. It's going to be probably a larger part in the years moving forward. um Just how quick technology is advancing nowadays is kind of mind-blowing to me.
Matt Dixon: So we'll see where it goes. I'd like to speak more on the topic, but I'm not the guy in the background creating these models. So um yeah, I'm the one using them, I should say.
Plant People: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: But Yeah, it's it's never going to be a perfect science.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: There's too much in the atmosphere to take into account. We have to make a lot of assumptions in these models.
Jessica : Here.
Matt Dixon: ah But we're getting we're getting better and better every day. Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah. You mentioned, oh, go ahead, Jessica.
Jessica : you were
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Oh, well, I was saying you were talking about like some of the historical stuff that you guys have to look at. I know um i personally had used you guys still manage the mesonite stations and you have all the historical records of like temperatures and stuff.
Jessica : Because when I was in grad school finishing up a grad project that came in handy looking at those temperature dates that I needed to look at from like months or years ago and could track like fluctuations over a time.
Matt Dixon: Well, yeah.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Jessica : So super handy.
Matt Dixon: Well, i I will tell you guys that Kentucky Mesnet is ran through Western Kentucky University.
Jessica : Oh.
Plant People: Oh.
Matt Dixon: Yeah. there're Absolutely awesome network they have down that way. But they are kind enough to give us the data and the background so we can input that information into our tools and models in the Weather Center um for folks across the state.
Matt Dixon: So I can't say enough good things about the Kentucky MESnet. I think they have over 80 weather stations now, research quality weather stations.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: And there's not a lot of states across the U.S. that have a network like we do. So. uh,
Plant People: Is there ah apps or ways that people like residential folks and commercial folks that can tap directly into that network? It seems like there is like different ways that you can interface with that data just with Mesonet, isn't there?
Matt Dixon: Yeah. Yeah. If you go to their website, kymesonet.org, you can get all the current conditions, look at past daily data, hourly data. But also they have their own app also.
Matt Dixon: So um either store either the Google Play store or the iOS store, just ah search for Kentucky Mesonet.
Plant People: Okay.
Jessica : um
Matt Dixon: It should pop up. But
Jessica : you
Matt Dixon: Nice thing about that is as living in Scott County, I live pretty close to the spindle top weather station on the north side of Fayette County.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: So I have that saved on the Kentucky Mesonet app and I can just pull that up and see how much rain I got since midnight, what the temperature is like, so on and so forth.
Plant People: Yeah.
Plant People: I wonder where we live in Scott County.
Matt Dixon: So.
Plant People: I wondered what was the nearest mesonet and I don't know, and I should know.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Plant People: So that's the one over by spindle top then.
Matt Dixon: yeah Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, Scott County does not have one yet.
Plant People: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: I have talked to the folks down at the Kentucky Medicine. Their goal is to have a station in every county eventually.
Plant People: Oh, nice.
Matt Dixon: um Now that, that takes money.
Jessica : Thank you.
Alexis: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: um So it might be a little bit, but yeah, that's, that's their ultimate goal.
Plant People: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Plant People: I heard somebody refer to those as almost like boots on the ground, ah hardware on the ground, I guess you could say, where it's extremely localized, which is, i imagine, a good thing as far as data, ah you know, gathering that data from very local points.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: Well, and yeah, we can input, like i I mentioned, we input that data into our ag tools and models, but it's not just us. ah The National Weather Service can use that Kentucky Mesonet to decide whether maybe they need to issue a severe thunderstorm warning based on that Kentucky Mesonet recording 60 mile per hour wind gust at some point in time.
Matt Dixon: Transportation cabinet may use it. Energy may use it. So, It can be used for a wide variety of purposes across the state. So
Alexis: Matt, do you have a personal weather station?
Matt Dixon: so
Alexis: are you like, I need to go home and not look at it?
Matt Dixon: ay
Matt Dixon: So one of the best pieces advice, I'll never forget this, and I always tell the guy this.
Jessica : Thank you.
Matt Dixon: One of the National Weather Service meteorologists back when I was at Purdue, they went on a road show to Purdue, Valparaiso, Ball State. And he always told me, he goes, Matt, everyone's always going to be asking your opinion about the weather.
Matt Dixon: But he goes, you got to have your own time too. So after you clock out at 5 p.m., go do your thing. So I personally, you call me crazy. I don't have my own weather station at home. i I generally have a good idea what's going on at any point time.
Alexis: yeah
Matt Dixon: But I do have a small rain gauge in my backyard.
Plant People: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: I'll check periodically. But yeah, so.
Alexis: Good for you. ah Jessica and I ah deal with plants all day long and then we go home and farm because we don't have boundaries.
Plant People: With all it,
Alexis: So we need to learn from Matt, Jessica.
Jessica : Right, right. Right.
Plant People: there needs to be a clear delineation.
Jessica : That's, yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : As I already mentioned, my dad's big fan, and it was a big deal when he finally got, he's a farmer, he finally got an iPhone that he resisted, but then I, like, told him how he could get all the weather apps, and at the time, it was before you all had your app, so I created a shortcut on his iPhone so he could go directly to your website, because he'd always check your all's website, so he was, like, ecstatic when you guys came out with an app, too.
Matt Dixon: There you go.
Matt Dixon: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jessica : So,
Matt Dixon: yeah
Jessica : so Yeah.
Matt Dixon: And what what we're looking to get bigger with this app.
Jessica : Boundaries.
Matt Dixon: So um I guess we haven't really talked about it a whole lot, but phase one has came out and we're going to be moving on to phase two here pretty soon.
Matt Dixon: But phase one we want everybody to be prepared across the state for the potential for severe weather winter weather you name it so we do have alert capabilities i think alexis mentioned that earlier um if there is a severe thunderstorm warning tornado warning you name it frost advisory issued by the national weather service bees buzz buzz beep beep straight to your phone you know about it
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jessica : you
Matt Dixon: Um, if there is lightning within 15 miles of your area, and this is especially important for agriculture, I don't want anybody on that, um, on that tractor, open air cab when there's lightning in that area.
Matt Dixon: I know, know, I know, I know and i preach this to everybody. I know it's a very low probability that you ever get struck by lightning. but there's always that chance.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: So having that alert on your phone to let you know there's lightning within 15 miles of your area, um get to that car, get to that house, you name it.
Jessica : you
Matt Dixon: So, but,
Plant People: Does that app also do precipitation like it says rain in 15 minutes kind of thing or whatever?
Matt Dixon: So we don't do the rain in 15 minutes. We have a very high resolution radar on there.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: You can be as much of a weather nerd as you want to be. um You can put storm tracks on it. You can overlay it with the NWS watch boxes and warning polygons. you can put lightning strikes on there and you can look at the difference between cloud cloud to cloud and cloud to ground lightning strikes.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: So that's another example of how far technology has came. We can look at the difference between lightning strikes now. But, um, I do have my ag weather update as a tab in there.
Matt Dixon: Currently, um, there's a disaster is the UK A&R disaster preparedness page.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: So a lot of folks have been accessing that after this last flooding situation. And we had another flooding situation February this year. I tend to forget about, but that was arguably worse than April.
Alexis: Yeah, a lot has happened this year already.
Matt Dixon: But, uh,
Plant People: Yeah, there's been it's been so much, yeah.
Matt Dixon: Yeah, yeah. But yeah, phase two coming up, we're going to be surveying, maybe have some focus groups with farmers and producers. We want to make sure this is exactly what you all want.
Matt Dixon: So we are going to modernize our website. I believe the goal is to make a county by county ag weather product.
Alexis: Well...
Jessica : Nicole
Matt Dixon: that that will be displayed in the app you just select your county or um there is some talk maybe it's gps based and just go straight to that that forecast so um it's a process there's there's a lot of loopholes we got to jump through it's uh i never could have fathomed everything in the background that went into developing a weather app so blows my mind
Alexis: Sure.
Plant People: It seems like something like that, I guess I would think it'd be kind of complicated with all the data that it munches through and then displays whatever's relevant to whoever's using the app.
Matt Dixon: Yeah, yeah.
Plant People: I mean, it seems like it is dealing with a lot of input.
Matt Dixon: Yeah, yeah. And on our side, we are taking in data from the National Weather Service. We're taking in data from the Kentucky Mesonet, other resources across the United States.
Jessica : cool
Matt Dixon: And then we have to transform all that data in the background and then send it to the foreground. um So you guys can see that in a pretty easy way.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Jessica : cool
Plant People: Now, as far as breaking down all that data, I know that you're working with farmers, but do you get into the nitty gritty of like even specific crops and like corn and wind?
Matt Dixon: Thank you.
Plant People: I mean, do you ever, i mean, is that part of the reporting that you do as far as getting into specific, you know, things to watch for like high tunnels, high winds, you know, coming in alerts there, or how do you deal with the specifics of, of, of, on the ag side?
Matt Dixon: Yeah, and i this is what i'm I got several ideas going on in my head with phase two, but I'm wondering about pushing out alerts if you agree to it on your phone for ag-specific threats or just ag-specific alerts.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Right. Yeah.
Matt Dixon: maybe Maybe you have strawberries that are in bloom.
Jessica : right yeah
Matt Dixon: ah maybe Maybe we have minimum temperatures dropping below freezing.
Alexis: yeah
Matt Dixon: Maybe you need to cover those strawberries. so
Plant People: Large hail and watermelons. Watch out.
Matt Dixon: Large hail and watermelons. So it's things of that nature.
Plant People: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: I'm really thinking through for the app. Right now, my only way of doing that is putting out a newsletter. Maybe I go through UK Ag Communications to send out a media article.
Matt Dixon: um Maybe I'm on NPR, you name it, giving an interview. But yeah, so some of those ideas.
Alexis: you can now find him on in the ccd newsletter given something specific for specialty crops so shameless plug right there ah for that but you and you've done some updates in your newsletter on like when you know winds are coming up and the temperatures are right for things like you know mildews for orchard sprays and things like that and that really guides farmers so that they're not spraying when they don't need to
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Alexis: um And I think that's been really helpful, you know, for a variety of of people who do that kind of stuff.
Jessica : hu
Matt Dixon: Yeah, it's it's all ultimately my whole goal is to help with ah those management and production-related decisions and ultimately just try to minimize weather and climate-related surprise for farmers and producers across the state.
Jessica : You
Alexis: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: You guys know it here. I mean, if you don't like the weather today, it's going to be different tomorrow.
Jessica : oh
Matt Dixon: And sometimes it can be a lot to handle.
Alexis: ah
Matt Dixon: And just trying to keep everyone up to date, that's my whole goal. Yeah.
Alexis: I think people don't really believe us when we like tell non-Kentuckians that say, you know, if you don't like it today, just wait till tomorrow.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Alexis: And it's like, no no, we mean it. Like, we're serious.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Plant People: We've had so much discussion on that with Master Gardeners my current class, and I hope I've instilled in them an appreciation for the fact of our transitional zone and the nature of Kentucky, neither not being north, not being south, and ah kind of the challenges that sometimes that brings out.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: yeah
Jessica : Thank you.
Matt Dixon: yeah
Plant People: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: Yeah. We're just smack dab in the middle of a variety of air masses across the region.
Plant People: yeah
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: And then when we have low pressure or high pressure move through continuously, the rotation around those things, they're going to be pulling air masses from the south. They're going to be pulling air masses from the north.
Matt Dixon: And boom, we have a 70 degree day. It's February. Boom, we're down to the 30s again. so
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: Yeah, that's it. I mean, it's um it's wild to me how quick it can change.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Jessica : I have a little bit of a random question as a thinking for you, Matt. Not really random in your world, but you see sometimes like with different ah meteor ah meteorologists, right? That like some of them will be like snow is their jam, right?
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Jessica : they They get like so excited about snow or other ones are like when it's storm season, that's like their go time.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Jessica : That's like what they look forward to.
Matt Dixon: yeah
Jessica : so do you have like a certain time that you are more like, Oh, yes. Spring. Spring storms are here or you know, or do you prefer something over the other?
Matt Dixon: I, you know, severe weather has always been my the highlight in my mind. ah i just think severe weather is so fascinating.
Matt Dixon: it's It's very dangerous.
Alexis: Wow.
Matt Dixon: I don't want to ignore that aspect, but um just the power of Mother Nature.
Jessica : Yeah.
Matt Dixon: I, again, I teach this weather class and I was talking to them yesterday about tornadoes. And there was a tornado, you guys probably familiar with it, out in Oklahoma, El Reno.
Matt Dixon: It was more than two miles wide.
Alexis: wow
Matt Dixon: There was the strongest tornado ever recorded was in 99 and it had estimated peak winds of over 300 miles per hour. And again, it just blows my mind that Mother Nature can...
Matt Dixon: get to that kind of level and um yeah so and i i think that's also part of just living in the midwest uh we're most susceptible to severe weather unlike maybe you live in florida or something it's hurricanes um up in minnesota north dakota yeah their highlight's going to be winter weather but um here in our neck of the woods it's it's these storms moving through so
Alexis: Yeah.
Jessica : Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Alexis: It's a little bit of everything.
Plant People: buts what's What's the wildest weather event? Just curious that that you've ever personally experienced.
Matt Dixon: That's a good question. So yeah, yeah, yeah.
Plant People: I mean, ah you've named some biggies out there, but I mean, as far something that's kind of personal for you.
Matt Dixon: So I guess number one, number two, we'll always, number one will always be the December 10th tornado back in 21.
Jessica : hmm
Alexis: Mm. Mm.
Matt Dixon: um Me and a coworker, dr chadley We were in Lexington at that time, um, at our own respective homes and whatnot. But I remember watching that tornado push through and I saw the Kentucky Mesonet on site go down.
Plant People: Hmm.
Matt Dixon: And that was my first, uh, inkling that the station got hit out there. But we went out the next day. I've never seen anything like that my life, just the absolute destruction.
Matt Dixon: But here closer home, um
Jessica : you
Matt Dixon: Back, man, my years are going together now. I think it was 2015, November that year. ah We had Supercell thunderstorms set up across I-64, living Georgetown.
Matt Dixon: We had one Supercell come across our area in Georgetown, and it produced pea-sized hail, quarter-sized hail.
Plant People: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: I hear that tick-tack, tick-tack on the window. I took shelter. We were under a tornado warning, too. But not, I don't know, 20 minutes, half hour later, we had another tornado warning.
Matt Dixon: Sirens go off.
Plant People: yeah
Matt Dixon: Normally, you don't see this. One storm steals the energy from the other storm. You're done. But took shelter again. This time... just keeping the same sport.
Matt Dixon: I had baseball-sized hail. It sounded like the local Scott County High School baseball team was all taking swings at the top of my house.
Alexis: ah
Plant People: It was wild.
Matt Dixon: And yeah, I was wondering, and this just this just happened to Owensboro a few weeks ago.
Plant People: It was crazy.
Matt Dixon: there Owensboro got decimated by baseball. er It was really golf-ball-sized hail, but it was wind-driven hail. But Anyways, the next morning after this baseball-sized hail, NWS calls me and they said, Matt, you want to go on a tornado survey with us?
Matt Dixon: They go out on these tornado surveys to estimate how strong the tornado was based on damage. And tornado actually touched down from that same storm in Paris, Kentucky.
Matt Dixon: So I went over there and there was roofs torn off houses.
Plant People: Fantastic.
Matt Dixon: There was ah walls blown out, so and so forth. But this will always stick with me. I was walking around one of those houses and the homeowner came over to me.
Matt Dixon: And she told me her story and she heard the sirens. She went to her kitchen window. She started looking out, you know, curiosity gets the best of us.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: Here comes a leaves. Here comes branches. Here comes a tree. Here comes a tornado. tornado ripped her kitchen wall out, ripped her with it, and she landed face first in her driveway.
Matt Dixon: and She had something like 10, 15 stitches in her lower lip.
Jessica : wow
Matt Dixon: This is 12 hours after the fact. She's still visibly shaking, but um that moment has always stuck with me. Again, Princeton, that EF4 tornado will always be number one, but ah Just going personally through that event, hearing that baseball-sized hail smack in your your house, yeah, that'll that'll always stay with me.
Plant People: those Those storms you described.
Alexis: Trying to remember what your insurance agent's name is and the process.
Plant People: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah. the Those storms in Scotts County is why when ah my wife absolutely demanded when we lived on a slab, we got a in-ground storm shelter installed in concrete.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Plant People: One of the ones that, you know, GPS located and everything and well-designed, but those storms, it was not an option. My wife said, no, this is not an optional thing. It's going to be expensive, but we got, uh, that's before we purchased a home with a full basement. But, uh,
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Plant People: And we, that was the best investment because that was a very active time for storms in central Kentucky. And that, that, that thing paid for itself time and again.
Matt Dixon: yeah
Plant People: and And then our neighbors, we were, think it was a 12 person ground storm shelter that was built into the garage. And it was full with our neighbors who also had slabs at the time. And we would all just be sitting down there in this tiny little bunker.
Matt Dixon: yeah
Plant People: And it was, it was, it it was, it was, it was an experience.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: Well, you know, talk to a lot of folks about getting storm shelters and whatnot, and price will come up. But another way to look at it is the peace of mind.
Plant People: It was ah the best investment we'd ever made.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: Yeah, yeah.
Plant People: It was great. Yeah.
Matt Dixon: And I'll tell you, just recently, again, both of us live in Georgetown whatnot, they put, they, Scott County invested in two storm shelters to put at the mobile home parks, the two major ones and in Georgetown.
Plant People: the Yeah.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: yeah
Alexis: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: And um I toured one of those the other day. can withstand 185 mile per hour wind. So that would be a very strong EF4 tornado. Very low chance we ever see one of those, but still peace of mind aspect.
Matt Dixon: Folks know that they're safe, so...
Plant People: Is that a unique thing for Scott County or is that a is does that happen like in other communities?
Alexis: yeah
Jessica : Right.
Plant People: I've seen those, seems like, other places before.
Matt Dixon: Well, I believe, don't quote me on this, but I believe Scott County was funded through FEMA. um I have been talking some other counties about what Scott County did, but as far as I know, not every county across the state is going to have those.
Plant People: no. no
Matt Dixon: So, yeah.
Plant People: Yeah, no. I thought that was pretty neat.
Alexis: So we, you know, working with farmers sort of directly and a a lot of what I have heard people, you know, say is we know that weather is going it seems like at least weather is going to continue to change rapidly and kind of like large amounts.
Alexis: swings, it seems between temps or a lot of wind or a lot of rain and just sort of thinking about, you know, the sustainability of farming and and what they can do.
Alexis: You know, are you hearing anything in your circles as far as, you know, I know you're, you the way you're coming from it is very different than the way we come from things because we're thinking, you know, plants, right? But is there anything people can do from a farming perspective to maybe help them along the way when dealing with some of these like wild swings that we have no control over.
Alexis: Is there words of wisdom there?
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: I guess my words of wisdom would be be prepared, constantly constantly be checking that weather forecast because as we've been talking about this entire episode here in Kentucky, it can change pretty quickly.
Jessica : help
Jessica : um
Matt Dixon: But being up to date, um having a weather app on you, whether that's my app or something else, ah maybe having access to these newsletters, Extension is a great resource across the state.
Jessica : you here
Matt Dixon: I know we talked about Master Gardener. helping you out in that aspect but in terms of severe weather um making sure you're prepared for a situation um i know this is a crazy situation but my cousin works on a farm in southeastern Illinois
Jessica : Okay.
Matt Dixon: and they lost their borderline, their entire farming um operation, machinery, and you name you name it to a EF3 tornado back a couple of years ago, right before planting season.
Alexis: well
Matt Dixon: But looking at the agricultural aspect,
Matt Dixon: weather's changing to looking at the ag side this warmer and wetter climate we've been stuck in the past decade it's just going to keep on getting warmer these storms can hold much more water but at the same point in time flash droughts can be an issue too so as wet as we've been ah we can have these flash droughts we've seen in the past few falls um it gets extremely dry for a month now
Alexis: Yeah.
Jessica : Yep.
Matt Dixon: this pattern we've been in is extremely dry for a month. We might make up for that in the next month, all in one or two events.
Alexis: you yeah
Matt Dixon: So looking at our growing and grazing seasons, they've been expanding here the past decade.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: But also with that warmer, wetter climate because ah comes more disease potential.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Matt Dixon: um I've been talking to people about pest pressure recently, too. So we have a warmer climate in place. Maybe there's pests that don't necessarily overwinter in Kentucky.
Matt Dixon: but they're able to overwinter farther north in the United States, making that migration to Kentucky that much easier. So these are things I believe farmers and producers might want to start thinking about as we go through the upcoming decades.
Matt Dixon: I know the focus is always going to be on the next week, what's the weather going to be like and everything, but it doesn't hurt to think long-term a little bit too.
Alexis: Sure, but...
Plant People: yeah
Alexis: Right, right.
Matt Dixon: So...
Alexis: And you know yeah, we like to prepare people you know for for the upcoming season or the upcoming whatever ah around here. So it's kind of one of those things like, yeah, we might have a flash drought, so maybe think about getting your irrigation in the fall.
Matt Dixon: yeah
Alexis: Or if you've been you know biting the bullet on something, you know put some money away every month for that for next year and get insurance at this stage.
Matt Dixon: yeah yeah it all comes back to me for that peace of mind aspect so um last past few falls the i have some um cattle producers they're like matt should i buy some extra hay for the winter months since we're already feeding now and i'm like
Alexis: Yeah.
Jessica : Right.
Matt Dixon: you know, peace of mind aspect. Do you really want to be worrying about that in the middle of February?
Alexis: yeah
Matt Dixon: Peace of mind. Go ahead buy it. So
Alexis: Yeah, that's – be prepared.
Matt Dixon: yeah.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Alexis: That makes sense.
Matt Dixon: Yeah.
Alexis: Well, I think that ah everything you've said is wonderful. I hope everybody took advantage of it. Everybody download the apps. We're going to just see skyrocketing ah app downloads after this totally.
Plant People: you
Alexis: um And if you're not in Kentucky and you're like, wow, why don't I have a Matt Dixon?
Matt Dixon: Hopefully.
Alexis: you know maybe Maybe go to your local LandGrant University, right? They probably –
Matt Dixon: Well, and I'll mention, i don't think I've said it yet.
Jessica : Cool.
Matt Dixon: This app can be used anywhere across the United States.
Alexis: Awesome.
Matt Dixon: um I had a county agent that took this app with her to Aruba recently.
Jessica : well
Matt Dixon: So if you're going on vacation at Disney World this summer, take the app with you. It will, um based on your GPS location, if you got lightning in that area, it'll let you know.
Alexis: Nice.
Matt Dixon: But yeah.
Plant People: And what's the keywords again, Matt, for the app? If you can give a specific search keywords for that.
Matt Dixon: Kentucky weather alert, um, we'll, we'll put you in the best spot. Again, we're competing with the bigger weather apps out there. the amount of downloads we have aren't necessarily like the, we'll say the weather channel or weather underground yet.
Matt Dixon: I'll say yet, maybe we'll get there, but, uh,
Alexis: Yeah. You are probably the biggest weather app in Kentucky because you're the only one that's from Kentucky. So you can say that.
Matt Dixon: I hope. Well, and the other goal is the ag weather side.
Alexis: You can use that.
Matt Dixon: Whenever we started developing these things, I was looking on the app stores and I couldn't find a ag weather app that was free. We're Kentucky Extension. Whatever we make on the ag weather side is going to be free to you all.
Matt Dixon: So, yeah. so
Alexis: Free and no, which having no ads when you're like stressed out about a tornado is really nice to not have to deal deal with those.
Jessica : Great.
Plant People: It's like, I don't want to see these dancing bears or candy rolling across my phone.
Alexis: Get out of my way. I want to see the radar.
Plant People: Yeah.
Matt Dixon: and One of the best compliments I got was from a rural farmer in Boyle County. She told me this is the only weather app she's been able to use because ads aren't bogging it down.
Alexis: mean
Matt Dixon: so
Alexis: ye
Plant People: Nice.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Oh yeah. Boyle.
Plant People: Lesson come.
Alexis: I used to be the agent in Boyle County and man, you get out there and there are plenty of places where you ain't got no service.
Matt Dixon: No service.
Plant People: Yeah. Yeah.
Alexis: Those people bear have have to walk up on the hill to make a phone call. So, um, that happens.
Matt Dixon: Yep.
Alexis: Well, Matt, we really appreciate you being here. ah obviously weather is a big part of what we do and what we preach about pretty much every episode. So, uh, having your wisdom is wonderful.
Alexis: Plus, you know, we got to all fangirl a little bit and, and that was great.
Matt Dixon: No.
Alexis: And Jessica gets to say, Don, guess who I met today? So, so that's always awesome. So check out the show notes for, you know, info on that app.
Jessica : Thank
Alexis: ah You can also, if you sign up for the Center for Crop Diversification newsletter, you will see Matt's monthly updates. Now we've wrangled him in into doing that.
Jessica : you.
Alexis: Thank you so much for that. So You can get those there. And we also put a link ah in our newsletter for yours. So if you want just a more in-depth Matt Dixon weather awesomeness, ah you can sign up for two newsletters that way.
Alexis: But we'll put links to that in the show notes. Shoot us an email if you have any trouble um getting that. And you follow us on Instagram. You can send us some messages there. and Again, we put that all in the show notes because we know a lot of you are driving or have gloves on and and doing something along those lines right now. So you know can't write that down.
Alexis: ah But we appreciate you guys being here with us today and we hope that you will join us next time. Have a great one.
