In Episode 24, Shane Holinde, the Outreach Manager for the Kentucky Mesonet and Kentucky Climate Center, discusses various topics. He discusses the KY Mesonet, the free downloadable app, and Kentucky Climate Trends. He also talks about the recent USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map change. Additionally, Shane has over 22 years of experience working in television as a meteorologist at WBKO-TV in Bowling Green, KY.
Click on episode 24 of the Sunshine Gardening Podcast to listen to the entire show! It is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify!
Links:
Kentucky Mesonet Site: https://www.kymesonet.org/
Link to Download the Kentucky Mesonet App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kentucky-mesonet/id1365272874
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Since the start of the millennium, particularly around
2000, we're getting warmer in Kentucky, and we're
also getting wetter
in Kentucky.
And because we're getting
warmer, particularly during the winter season, we have
seen that change in the plant zone hardiness
from what was 6B
for most of the state for a long
period of time
(00:21):
to now 7A for most of the Commonwealth,
and that would include the Bowling Green area.
In fact, even 7B conditions are creeping up
now from out of Tennessee and into portions
of far
Southwest Kentucky and areas along the Tennessee line.
And basically what that means is that because
we're getting warmer,
we are now seeing a hardiness
(00:42):
of what was 0 to -five
for vegetation during the winter season, now bumped
up to 0 to
5 degrees above.
That would be for zone
7A. So some of the plants of vegetation
that might have been
optimal for growth in 6B, well now they
may be more susceptible to cold snaps since
(01:03):
we have jumped zones.
That voice is Shane Hollandy,
the outreach manager for the Kentucky Mesonet and
Kentucky Climate Center.
He also is a meteorologist
with over 22 years of experience working in
television
at WBKO
TV in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Welcome back, garden enthusiasts.
(01:25):
I'm your host, Kristen Hildebrand.
And today, we're starting with a key segment,
the weather.
As we know, mother nature holds the reins
regarding successful gardening.
Shane and I will delve into Kentucky climate
trends,
the Kentucky Mesonet app, and the most recent
change to the USDA
(01:46):
plant hardiness zone.
So grab your gardening gloves, and let's dive
in.
Welcome to the Sunshine Gardening podcast.
This gardening show will equip and inspire avid
gardeners with tips and tricks to help them
navigate the gardening world. The show will also
highlight specific growing requirements for seasonal plants so
(02:06):
the sun will shine brighter over their Kentucky
garden.
And now, here's that ray of sunshine garden
enthusiast, and horticulture extension agent, Kristin Hildebrand
with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.
Thanks for being with us today on the
podcast, Shane. I'm really glad to have you
here. I know the main topic that I
(02:28):
wanna talk about with you today is about
the weather. And I know that a lot
of people
can even start their conversation with, like, how's
the weather been today? And it seems like
for us in Kentucky, if you look through
the years like
2021 and 2022,
December,
it seemed like it was cold and we
got a lot of questions and even just
(02:49):
a couple weeks ago in the month of
January,
we had some cold weather as well. So
I know as your role as the outreach
manager for the Kentucky Mesonet, there's probably a
wealth of information that is on the Kentucky
Mesonet site. And I don't know if I
fully knew the potential
that it did, but do you care first
to talk about the weather to explain a
(03:10):
little bit more about Kentucky Mesonet? Maybe give
us a little bit of history on how
it was started
and some things that we might not know
about Kentucky Mesonet.
Sure thing, Kristen. And yes, as you mentioned,
weather is I think the number one conversation
starter here
in the state of Kentucky, because it's so
variable.
We're a battleground state between the cold, dry
(03:31):
air that swoops in from out of the
Canadian prairies
and the warm moist air that moves in
from out of the Gulf of Mexico. When
those two clash,
that's when we get some pretty active weather
around here. So Kentucky Mesonet, just some history
about
us and who we are. We date back
officially to 2,006,
even though our first station online did not
(03:51):
appear
until May
2007, and that's located at the West Kentucky
Farm,
the Iraq Center on the south side of
Bowling Green. But it was
in 'six when the first bit of money
was earmarked for the start of Kentucky Mesonet
system
in our state by Senator Mitch McConnell
at the time. So from 2006
(04:13):
up till 2016, the first 10 years of
our existence,
we were funded primarily on the federal level.
That changed in 2016
as we went into the hands of
the state of Kentucky. So for about 8
years now,
most of our funding has come from
the state. I say most because we still
have some grant money
(04:34):
that is funneled into keeping the Mesonet around.
But basically
we are the state's official weather and climate
monitoring
system. Now with 79 sites strong, pushing on
80, we do plan to open up some
new sites this year. We are targeting counties
like Greene County for potential development along with
Clay County over the east.
(04:56):
And we also have how county set to
go online
potentially later this year, along with several other
counties, which we're looking at right now. There
are 74 counties that have at least 1
Mesonet site. And these sites take in things
like air temperature, relative humidity, dew point, the
measurement of moisture in the atmosphere,
precipitation. We have gauges for that set aside
(05:17):
from our towers,
which are loaded with instrumentation,
which also measure air pressure, wind speed, wind
direction,
solar radiation, we take that in as well,
along with measurements below ground. And that would
include soil temperature and moisture from 2 inches,
4 inches all the way down to a
40 inch depths at about 60 of our
79 sites. I was gonna say really interesting.
(05:40):
I know you mentioned a few counties there
that you're potentially gonna add some instrumentation there.
Is it just mainly to go back to
funding to make those happen, or does there
technicians that have to make that happen too?
Well, funding is part of it. These
sites, because they're research grade, they don't come
cheap. But that's where we rely heavily on
(06:01):
the state funds, as well as the grant
money that we receive here at Mesonet. But
we also rely on local champions, the local
farmers and property owners who
set aside a small plot of land. And
by small, we mean no more than about
40 feet by 40 feet approximately.
And that's just big enough to erect our
tower
along with our preset gauge
(06:23):
and then a solar panels to take in
not just the solar energy, but also to
help energize the batteries
that we have at our sites. I was
gonna say, does it have to be on
pretty level ground as well? Yes, it does.
And of course, Kentucky is not a flat
state. So therein lies part of the problem
sometimes with regard to
expansion of our network, particularly in the Eastern
(06:45):
part of the state where it is more
mountainous, we have some elevation there of upwards
of 2,000 feet.
So, that rugged terrain combined with the fact
that it can be difficult sometimes to get
a strong cell signal. And that is a
very important part of keeping a site operational.
That means that sometimes there are some challenges
(07:06):
involved in selecting counties, especially
out in the Eastern part of the state
where we have to find ground that is
less than 5% grade. We also have to
look for areas at least a 100 feet
away from
wooden locations. We don't wanna be too close
to trees,
too close to buildings, because if we are,
then we start to get some contamination
(07:27):
of the good data
coming into that site. And we also want
it to be on ground that is natural.
In other words, we don't wanna build on
a gravel lot where grass is growing through
that. We want it to be, as natural
as possible when it comes to
weather, instrumentation, and building it. That's all really
interesting.
What all does it take as far as
(07:49):
instrument wise? Like, what does that look if
someone's never seen a Kentucky Mesonet location?
Is there several instruments or just 1 or
2? There are numerous instruments involved. So on
the tower itself at the very tip top,
you have a wind propeller anemometer. So that's
taking in the wind direction and speed. And
that is at the 10 meter level on
(08:10):
the tower. And our towers, by the way,
are about 34 feet tall.
You go underneath that and at the 9
meter level, we are taking
temperature and then keep on going down to
the 2 meter level, which is approximately 6
feet high.
That's where we take in more
data, including temperature, air pressure, dew point relative
humidity. We also have a leaf wetness sensor
(08:32):
at our sites attached to that 2 meter
bar. And obviously that is very advantageous
when it comes to looking at
evaporation rates, evapotranspiration
rates
at the different sites across the state.
And then you go down beneath the ground
and that's where we're measuring
soil temperatures and soil moisture in the various
(08:52):
depths. Now I know at one of the
talks that you gave for us just recently,
you talked about some of these instruments can
actually do, is it 3 d images? Is
that correct? Yeah, so we do have the
capability
with our webcams
to look at infrared imagery,
our different sites across the state. So that
gives us a good idea of how
(09:14):
vegetation is behaving. Is it too wet? Is
it too dry?
And of course, the webcams themselves, we continue
to increase our fleet of those. We went
from
23 webcams operational
at the start of last fall and September.
Now we're pushing 60. And I could tell
you that even now, our field technicians are
out and about
(09:35):
at sites that do not have webcams,
installing those and deploying those.
And we hope to have most of our
sites fitted with real time webcam imagery that
will update every 5 minutes as opposed to
every 15 or 30 as it had been
previously for the sites
that were equipped with webcams
prior. So this is big news for us.
(09:57):
It's also big news for the folks at
the National Weather Service who warn for thunderstorm
activity,
emergency management, and it's good for the public
use as well to be able to hop
on the website and check out what's going
on at the site near them. Yeah, I
think that's huge for advancement. I don't know
if you can slow that down in real
(10:17):
time actual time, but that would be fascinating
to watch.
Little sidebar there. But speaking of access, how
can the public access the Kentucky Mesonet site?
And like you said, there's several counties on
there you're working to add towards more. So
where should people go to to check that
out? So kymesonet.org,
that is the site that will take you
directly to the main page. Once you're there,
(10:39):
the first thing you'll see will be the
temperatures, at least right now anyway. I can
tell you that our website is getting ready
to undergo
some changes,
particularly with the main page. We are going
to be adding
a lot of new maps with a lot
of different
parameters,
everything from
24, 48 hour weather comparisons
(11:00):
to heating and cooling degree days, which come
into play, especially
as we get into the growing season, which
will be upon us before we know it.
We've talked about degree days, that would be
the difference there above and below 65 degrees,
as far as the amount of energy needed
to heat things up or cool things down.
Heat in the seas or apparent temperatures, wind
(11:21):
chill values, and comparisons with those. A lot
more of those parameters will be coming down
the pike on our website soon. So we're
very excited about that. We also have an
app that is Kentucky Mesonet, which you can
download for the iPhone or for the Android.
I have it downloaded to my phone. In
fact, it's usually the first app I check
when I get up and rolling in the
morning, because not only can you get the
(11:43):
current conditions there for the site nearest you,
you can also look at a 36 hour
forecast available
from the National Weather Service
tailored for that site. That's awesome. So you
can take it on the go. You don't
just have to be in front of a
computer to watch it. So that's awesome. Is
that a free app as well? Yes. That
app is absolutely free.
(12:04):
And I should point out too that Kentucky
Mesonet is under the hat
of the Kentucky Climate Center. And we also
have a website with that, kyclimate
dotorg. The Mesonet site link is included in
that particular webpage. We also have
hydrologic information there, agricultural
information through different links. You can see what's
(12:27):
occurring with drought or lack thereof with the
information that we have on that website as
well. So kymesonet.org
and kyclimate.org.
Yeah. That's awesome. Especially with all the different
measurement tools that you all have. And it
seems like spring brings the rain, but then
the summer is more the drought, fall can,
I guess, go either way? In the wintertime,
(12:49):
everybody's wanting to know is there ice, is
there snow, you know, what affects their crops
if they're in the dormancy stage, and so
that's just a wealth of options there and
I know my mind's blown so and I'll
have to add that to my list about
downloading the app. I do want to transition
just a little bit because
one of the main reasons I had you
(13:09):
on the podcast was to talk to you
about this recent change
that they've added to the USDA
plant hardiness zone. And, you know, for Kentucky,
we have always for as long as I
can remember, I'll put it that way, we've
always been in zone 6b.
And in 2023,
in the latter part, I think it was
November, they switched that over to zone 7a.
(13:31):
So can you talk to us, I know
that you've been in weather for a long
time. So could you tell us maybe a
little bit about what climate trends that we're
seeing for the state of Kentucky? Sure. So
since the start of the millennium, particularly around
2000, we're getting warmer in Kentucky and we're
also getting wetter
in Kentucky.
And because we're getting
(13:53):
warmer, particularly during the winter season, we have
seen that change in the plant zone hardiness
from what was 6B
for most of the state for a long
period of time
to now 7A
for most of the Commonwealth, and that would
include the Bowling Green area. In fact, even
7B conditions are creeping up now from out
of Tennessee and into portions of far
(14:15):
Southwest Kentucky and areas along the Tennessee line.
And basically what that means is that because
we're getting warmer,
we are now seeing a hardiness
of what was 0 to -five
for vegetation during the winter season, now bumped
up to 0
to 5 degrees above. That would be for
(14:36):
zone
7A. So some of the plants and vegetation
that might've been optimal for growth in 6B,
well now they may be more susceptible to
cold snaps since we have jumped zones. You
take what happened in December 2022,
for instance, right before Christmas,
we saw the temperature in Bowling Green plummet
from 50 degrees
(14:57):
to sub zero in about 10 hours time.
That shock, if you will, combined with the
fact that we didn't have a whole lot
of snow to go with that Arctic blast,
resulted in the loss of a lot of
the tender vegetation
from portions of the state. I know in
my backyard, the dapper willows that once aligned
(15:17):
my fence line there with my neighbor's yard,
they did not survive that arctic blast. And
then some of the boxwoods were affected as
well. Even now, mine are still trying to
grow back
from that bitter blast that we had in
December 22. So that's one example of what
can happen around here when we get to
the sun cold snaps,
(15:37):
particularly with not a lot of snow cover.
If you have deeper snow cover, you're gonna
have more insulated ground.
In the instance of December 22,
we didn't have much of that. And the
snow we had was not enough to completely
cover the ground.
Unlike what we saw at least in the
Bowling Green area and parts of Southern Kentucky
just a couple of weeks ago, when we
(15:57):
had anywhere from 3 to 5 inches of
snow, even locally more. So the hope is
that this go around, because of that and
combined with the fact that the soils are
more moist now, certainly than they were back
in the fall season,
hopefully any damage to vegetation with this particular
cold snap was very, very minimal. Only time
will tell.
Course, we're still only in January. We've got
(16:19):
a ways to go before things start to
perk back up again as we head toward
the spring season. But one thing that already
looks different this year as opposed to last
is that we don't have the early season
growth
of the spring flowers, like the daffodils, buttercups.
They were already in bloom by the end
of January last year. I'm not seeing that
around the area this time. And of course,
(16:41):
the cold mid month was one reason for
that.
There are indications that we could be looking
at more cold before the season is out,
particularly in mid to late February. So that
could slow
the early season budding and blooming process. Whereas
last year,
we already had some trees leafing out during
the 2nd week of February, including those dapper
(17:01):
willows that I told you about earlier. So
it's amazing how things can change from one
season to the next year in the state
of Kentucky.
Yes. And I have to ask you, I
know you mentioned there December of 2022
where we had so many phone calls as
a result of all that.
People's boxwoods weren't looking well. It seems like
(17:21):
the laurels got hit pretty hard, and there
was another number ones too. But for December
of 2021,
you know, like when Bowling Green had the
tornadoes
just left, right, and here, there, and everywhere,
it seemed like and you mentioned we're warmer
and we're wetter.
I guess that's one of the trends that
you're seeing too, especially for the month of
December. Nobody really thinks about storm weather in
(17:44):
the month of December. You know, I guess,
Kentucky with us being a transition zone, we
can get anything really.
Yeah. Anything goes here in Kentucky any time
of year and any time of day. And
December 2021 in that catastrophic tornado outbreak was
a prime example.
That was an unusually warm month for Kentucky,
back the warmest ever December
(18:07):
for Bowling Green and a lot of surrounding
cities. So when you combine the fact that
the things are getting warmer, particularly in the
winter season,
you have more capacity
for the atmosphere to hold more moisture, more
water vapor.
So if you get a strong storm system
moving in to such an environment, like you
had there lay on that night, December 10th,
(18:27):
and into the wee hours of December 11th,
2021,
that's a recipe
for trouble. Particularly if you have some strong
jet stream energy
involved where the wind's about 5,000 feet off
the ground or blowing
70 to 80 miles an hour. All the
ingredients came together, unfortunately, that night for what
was a terrible tornado outbreak. And Kentucky Mesonet
(18:48):
was part of measuring just how fast those
winds were
in some of the strongest storms. In fact,
we said not 1, but 2 wind records
in the span of 1 hour
at a couple of our sites in the
western part of the state. The site near
Mayfield, which is located to 6 miles outside
of the city,
measured a top wind gust of 107
miles an hour. That was at 9:25
(19:11):
on the night of December 10th.
With that information combined with what they were
seeing on radar,
the folks at the National Weather Service in
Paducah responsible for, warning that area
issued a tornado emergency for the city
of Mayfield.
Fast forward to 1 hour later, that EF4
tornado had moved through Mayfield, did so much
(19:31):
destruction there,
stayed on the ground through Marshall, Lyon, into
Caldwell counties.
Once it arrived at Princeton,
at the UK facility there,
it produced a wind gust of 120 miles
an hour,
120.1
to be exact.
And that happened at 10:30 that night of
10th. So that is recognized as the new
(19:53):
state win record
for Kentucky.
That win, by the way, actually destroyed
our tower. We have just one piece of
it, the very tip top remaining here, our
operations center at Western Kentucky University. So that
just goes to show that
we've got
that power here with Kentucky Mesonet to
(20:14):
measure
the weather with real time
every 5 minutes for advanced warning and for
hazard mitigation and for saving lives. That's what
it's all about. Exactly. And these tools are
very helpful to kind of watch the weather
and be alert.
I was gonna say, with a lot of
the resources
that you all have at Kentucky Mesonet, is
(20:34):
there any other thing that we need to
know about as further resources available?
Sure. So there's a wealth of information when
you go to our websites that I mentioned
earlier.
You could go to kentuckymessonad.org,
go to the data tab, which is about
midway over.
And if you want to see both monthly
and yearly summaries for all of our 79
(20:55):
sites, it's available right there. So for instance,
if you want to go check out the
WKU farm site and see how things have
trended all the way back to
its inception of the late 2000s,
you can go there and see how things
have trended like during the month of June,
for example, in the middle of the growing
seasons. What years had
(21:15):
rather dry Junes as opposed to ones that
were rather wet? How did temperatures
compare and contrast? You go back to 2012,
that's one of the years that's interesting to
look up because we had a very terrible
drought,
high impact event across the Commonwealth, particularly the
central and the western part of the state
where it was severe
(21:35):
to exceptional
during the summer and stayed that way all
the way into fall. We haven't had a
year quite like that since, but we've had
some years where we've had these, what we
call flash droughts,
where we go from having
soils that are not necessarily
fully saturated, but at least to sufficiently
wet enough to all of a sudden being
(21:57):
in
moderate to not severe drought. We had not
1 or 2 of those
last year. 1 happened to occur during the
late spring to early summer months.
We broke out of that in late June
into July with plenty of rain. And then
lo and behold, things turned dry again by
the beginning of September.
And thus came a second drought, which turned
(22:17):
into a hydrologic drought, late fall into the
early part of winter. At least now we're
breaking out of that. But you can also
go to our website
and look at soil temperature
and moisture trends dating back several weeks for
the 60 or so sites that include
that data. You can even go back for
the last couple of weeks and see when
the January fall occurred,
(22:39):
when temperature is warm from all those days
we had that were freezing
to going out of the forties, then going
into the fifties. And it was interesting,
Kristen, to know that soil temperatures at a
4 inch depth across parts of the state
were hovering around 32 degrees as late as
about January 22nd, 23rd. Well, once we warm
things up, we saw
(22:59):
those soil temperatures, the top soil anyway,
bounce some 8 to 10 degrees in just
one day's time.
So that change was pretty dramatic. And of
course, as we get into the growing season,
a lot of folks like to plant tomatoes.
They're very time sensitive, very frost sensitive, as
you know.
So a good way to gauge how that
topsoil is trending with temperatures is through our
(23:22):
website at kymesonet.org.
Yeah. I know after this winter season, it
seems like people are ready and anxious to
get outside and plant, and tomatoes is that
number one vegetable that everybody likes to plant.
And so when do we generally recommend for
planting tomatoes
according to that weather, like you said, for
the frost free dates? Because I know Eastern
(23:43):
Kentucky varies from South Central even into the
Western part of the states. So what do
you generally recommend
there? Well, for northern and eastern parts of
Kentucky, generally, you wanna wait until
May. Usually, the old adage goes, if you
wait till after Kentucky Derby, which is the
1st Saturday of May, you're generally okay. And
(24:03):
I think the same is also true for
the central and western regions. We have 4
climate divisions by the way, in the state
of Kentucky.
And even though it is warmer in the
south and west generally than it is in
the north and east, We could still have
those seasons where we have these late season
frost
that can do damage to tomatoes at anything
(24:24):
that is not as hardy or as frost
sensitive. I go back to 4 years ago,
2020,
We had a very warm start to spring,
particularly during late March
April. And then all of a sudden we
had
frost and freezing temperatures
around May 8th 9th, pretty deep into the
month of May. That was damaging to the
wheat crop, which had already bearded out and
(24:46):
matured by that point
and damaged or killed any tomatoes that have
been planted
by that point. So slow your whole gardeners
when it comes to planting things like tomatoes,
squash, zucchini.
I know if we go into these long
stretches where it could be in the 70s
or even the 80s, like in March April,
the temptation is to want to go ahead
(25:06):
and put those into the ground. But you're
never really free of frosted freeze around here
until
I think sometimes into the 2nd week of
May. That's especially true over in the northern
and eastern parts of the state. And by
the way, we saw this last year, although
it happened earlier, talked earlier about the things
budding out and leaping out with trees and
vegetation
(25:26):
so early in the year of 2023.
And all of a sudden,
here came the 3rd week of March, right
at the beginning of spring of 20th, we
had temperatures tumble into the teens.
That did considerable damage to fruit crops, particularly
the peach crop last year, not just here
in Kentucky, but also into portions
of the deep south. So that's one of
the trends we've been noting here in this
(25:48):
decade of the 2020s,
where the winters are warmer, the growing seasons
overall are getting longer. However,
you have to be very careful when it
comes to planting anything frost or freeze sensitive
so soon. Because
if you get that late in the season
where we drop below 32 degrees,
and especially if we drop down to 28
degrees, that's what we consider hard freeze territory,
(26:11):
that can be very damaging to anything that's
frost or freeze sensitive. I believe it was
was it 2,007 or 2,008 when we had
that late spring freeze? Because it seemed like
we had a earlier Easter because I can
remember
being in my Easter dress and it was
snowing outside.
And it seems like we had that lot
of damage to our landscape trees and because
(26:32):
I remember they just they got a lot
of damage from that too.
But with all these dates that you've mentioned,
I know we've mentioned several dates throughout the
podcast here, but it seems like history has
a way of repeating itself for sure. Right?
It does. And I remember it was 2007,
the year you're referring to where we had
the Easter weekend freeze.
(26:52):
That event was particularly
sinister
for a lot of the plants and vegetation
because it was one of those years where
we came out of one of the warmest
marches
ever here in Kentucky,
a lot of days with highs of the
low to even middle eighties.
And then all of a sudden,
temperatures crashed on Easter weekend. This was well
(27:12):
into April.
And then we had not only snow, but
we had temperatures getting down into the lower
twenties
at a point where a lot of the
trees had leafed out. So as a result,
a lot of those leaves had that singed
look. I remember losing boxwoods in my other
home because of that event. And I think
I planted a cherry dogwood tree in my
front yard that did not make it through
(27:34):
that event. It was a young tree at
the time.
So that's another example of one of those
late season frost and freeze occurrences that we
seem to be getting more of here in
recent years. I was gonna say, going back
to the tomatoes, I do remember that occurrence
because it's like people had planted right after
Derby Day. And then I remember everybody like
(27:54):
scrounging to get buckets and whatever to cover
it up. So you really need to be
on the weather and it seems like you've
covered really well what Kentucky Mesonet can do
and hopefully our listeners can download that free
downloadable app and put it on their phone
and check, like you said, wherever the nearest
location is. I know you're still, he said,
working on getting things in the eastern part
(28:15):
of the state, but it's so nice to
have that information at our fingertips. And hopefully
a lot of our listeners can download that.
Shane, I know that you are on social
media. Do you care to share how we
can, like, follow you on social media? Sure.
So we have a Facebook page for Kentucky
Mesonet
as well as, what is now X formerly
(28:36):
Twitter.
And you can follow us there for updates.
You can also follow Kentucky Climate Center
on the X platform.
We post several things
throughout the day and throughout the week, ranging
from US Drought Monitor. And that by the
way, updates every Thursday morning, the indices for
that are tabulated
(28:56):
on Tuesday.
And our state climatologist to Doctor. Brodsky
is one of those that helps tabulate those
indices. A lot of that information coming from
our Mesonet sites through soil moisture
and all that is fed into that drought
monitor. So always watch for that every Thursday
morning.
(29:16):
We've seen some improvement there lately with all
the rain that we've had. So we're hoping
that
the moderate drought condition that still exists for
central and eastern parts of the state is
eliminated with this next update. But you can
check there on social media. We also repost,
information from the National Centers For Environmental Information
as they,
(29:37):
put out some great data and stats with
regard to not just Kentucky, but the Midwest
Climate Region,
which we fall underneath the head of. And
also the Midwest Regional Climate Center that's based
at Purdue University up in Indiana.
They cover our region
as well. And we'd like to repost
the things that they send out on social
(29:58):
media. So several ways you can follow us
there.
Yeah. I know that I enjoy some of
your posts on social media just to check
out, especially it was really comical, like, during
the winter season. And I think you all
posted, like, a real cool bubble that was
in like the cold and I don't think
I've ever witnessed that. So that was really
eye opening too. Yeah, so those frozen bubbles,
(30:19):
that was a couple of weeks ago. We
had, one person there from Taylor County
send us a couple of shots and that
real bitterly cold air. We had temperature sub
zero,
you can slowly blow those bubbles and then
wash them free. So that was the, we
have a picture of the week that we
post to our Facebook page, as well as
the Twitter page through the Mesonet. So we
(30:41):
always get some really cool submissions that way.
And you can email those to us as
well. My email is shane.
Hollandeywku.edu,
or you can send it
to kymesonet@wku.edu.
Awesome. I guess my next if we have
another winter weather event, I'm gonna try to
(31:01):
get my 4 year old out there and
try to recreate that frozen bubble. So, Shane,
thank you so much for coming on the
podcast. You're a wealth of knowledge and we're
so lucky to have you in our area.
So thanks again for joining us on the
Sunshine Gardening podcast. Thank you so much for
having me, Kristen. Take care. Thank you for
tuning in to today's episode of the Sunshine
(31:22):
Gardening podcast.
If you enjoyed the show, make sure to
follow me and leave a review on your
favorite podcast platform.
I would appreciate your support and feedback.
Also, I want to extend a special thank
you to Shane Hollandy for being our guest
on the Sunshine Gardening podcast.
To access the show notes for episode 24
(31:44):
with Shane,
please visit me on the blog at warren
countyagriculture.com.
Remember, keeping yourself updated about the weather conditions
can immensely impact the success of your garden.
Whether you need to prepare for an unexpected
frost or ensure maximum sunlight for your plants,
(32:05):
being weather wise is vital for a flourishing
garden.
Stay tuned for more insightful tips and discussions
to elevate your gardening game. Until next time,
happy gardening.
Thanks for listening to the Sunshine Gardening podcast
with Kristen Hildebrand.
If you enjoyed today's content, make sure to
hit the subscribe button wherever you get your
(32:27):
podcast to catch future segments of the Sunshine
Gardening podcast.
Gardeners keep on digging and learning more about
gardening so the sun shines brighter over your
Kentucky garden. The Sunshine Gardening podcast with and
Hildebrand is a production of the University of
Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.
Since the start of the millennium, particularly around
2000, we're getting warmer in Kentucky, and we're
also getting wetter
in Kentucky.
And because we're getting
warmer, particularly during the winter season, we have
seen that change in the plant zone hardiness
from what was 6B
for most of the state for a long
period of time
(00:21):
to now 7A for most of the Commonwealth,
and that would include the Bowling Green area.
In fact, even 7B conditions are creeping up
now from out of Tennessee and into portions
of far
Southwest Kentucky and areas along the Tennessee line.
And basically what that means is that because
we're getting warmer,
we are now seeing a hardiness
(00:42):
of what was 0 to -five
for vegetation during the winter season, now bumped
up to 0 to
5 degrees above.
That would be for zone
7A. So some of the plants of vegetation
that might have been
optimal for growth in 6B, well now they
may be more susceptible to cold snaps since
(01:03):
we have jumped zones.
That voice is Shane Hollandy,
the outreach manager for the Kentucky Mesonet and
Kentucky Climate Center.
He also is a meteorologist
with over 22 years of experience working in
television
at WBKO
TV in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Welcome back, garden enthusiasts.
(01:25):
I'm your host, Kristen Hildebrand.
And today, we're starting with a key segment,
the weather.
As we know, mother nature holds the reins
regarding successful gardening.
Shane and I will delve into Kentucky climate
trends,
the Kentucky Mesonet app, and the most recent
change to the USDA
(01:46):
plant hardiness zone.
So grab your gardening gloves, and let's dive
in.
Welcome to the Sunshine Gardening podcast.
This gardening show will equip and inspire avid
gardeners with tips and tricks to help them
navigate the gardening world. The show will also
highlight specific growing requirements for seasonal plants so
(02:06):
the sun will shine brighter over their Kentucky
garden.
And now, here's that ray of sunshine garden
enthusiast, and horticulture extension agent, Kristin Hildebrand
with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.
Thanks for being with us today on the
podcast, Shane. I'm really glad to have you
here. I know the main topic that I
(02:28):
wanna talk about with you today is about
the weather. And I know that a lot
of people
can even start their conversation with, like, how's
the weather been today? And it seems like
for us in Kentucky, if you look through
the years like
2021 and 2022,
December,
it seemed like it was cold and we
got a lot of questions and even just
(02:49):
a couple weeks ago in the month of
January,
we had some cold weather as well. So
I know as your role as the outreach
manager for the Kentucky Mesonet, there's probably a
wealth of information that is on the Kentucky
Mesonet site. And I don't know if I
fully knew the potential
that it did, but do you care first
to talk about the weather to explain a
(03:10):
little bit more about Kentucky Mesonet? Maybe give
us a little bit of history on how
it was started
and some things that we might not know
about Kentucky Mesonet.
Sure thing, Kristen. And yes, as you mentioned,
weather is I think the number one conversation
starter here
in the state of Kentucky, because it's so
variable.
We're a battleground state between the cold, dry
(03:31):
air that swoops in from out of the
Canadian prairies
and the warm moist air that moves in
from out of the Gulf of Mexico. When
those two clash,
that's when we get some pretty active weather
around here. So Kentucky Mesonet, just some history
about
us and who we are. We date back
officially to 2,006,
even though our first station online did not
(03:51):
appear
until May
2007, and that's located at the West Kentucky
Farm,
the Iraq Center on the south side of
Bowling Green. But it was
in 'six when the first bit of money
was earmarked for the start of Kentucky Mesonet
system
in our state by Senator Mitch McConnell
at the time. So from 2006
(04:13):
up till 2016, the first 10 years of
our existence,
we were funded primarily on the federal level.
That changed in 2016
as we went into the hands of
the state of Kentucky. So for about 8
years now,
most of our funding has come from
the state. I say most because we still
have some grant money
(04:34):
that is funneled into keeping the Mesonet around.
But basically
we are the state's official weather and climate
monitoring
system. Now with 79 sites strong, pushing on
80, we do plan to open up some
new sites this year. We are targeting counties
like Greene County for potential development along with
Clay County over the east.
(04:56):
And we also have how county set to
go online
potentially later this year, along with several other
counties, which we're looking at right now. There
are 74 counties that have at least 1
Mesonet site. And these sites take in things
like air temperature, relative humidity, dew point, the
measurement of moisture in the atmosphere,
precipitation. We have gauges for that set aside
(05:17):
from our towers,
which are loaded with instrumentation,
which also measure air pressure, wind speed, wind
direction,
solar radiation, we take that in as well,
along with measurements below ground. And that would
include soil temperature and moisture from 2 inches,
4 inches all the way down to a
40 inch depths at about 60 of our
79 sites. I was gonna say really interesting.
(05:40):
I know you mentioned a few counties there
that you're potentially gonna add some instrumentation there.
Is it just mainly to go back to
funding to make those happen, or does there
technicians that have to make that happen too?
Well, funding is part of it. These
sites, because they're research grade, they don't come
cheap. But that's where we rely heavily on
(06:01):
the state funds, as well as the grant
money that we receive here at Mesonet. But
we also rely on local champions, the local
farmers and property owners who
set aside a small plot of land. And
by small, we mean no more than about
40 feet by 40 feet approximately.
And that's just big enough to erect our
tower
along with our preset gauge
(06:23):
and then a solar panels to take in
not just the solar energy, but also to
help energize the batteries
that we have at our sites. I was
gonna say, does it have to be on
pretty level ground as well? Yes, it does.
And of course, Kentucky is not a flat
state. So therein lies part of the problem
sometimes with regard to
expansion of our network, particularly in the Eastern
(06:45):
part of the state where it is more
mountainous, we have some elevation there of upwards
of 2,000 feet.
So, that rugged terrain combined with the fact
that it can be difficult sometimes to get
a strong cell signal. And that is a
very important part of keeping a site operational.
That means that sometimes there are some challenges
(07:06):
involved in selecting counties, especially
out in the Eastern part of the state
where we have to find ground that is
less than 5% grade. We also have to
look for areas at least a 100 feet
away from
wooden locations. We don't wanna be too close
to trees,
too close to buildings, because if we are,
then we start to get some contamination
(07:27):
of the good data
coming into that site. And we also want
it to be on ground that is natural.
In other words, we don't wanna build on
a gravel lot where grass is growing through
that. We want it to be, as natural
as possible when it comes to
weather, instrumentation, and building it. That's all really
interesting.
What all does it take as far as
(07:49):
instrument wise? Like, what does that look if
someone's never seen a Kentucky Mesonet location?
Is there several instruments or just 1 or
2? There are numerous instruments involved. So on
the tower itself at the very tip top,
you have a wind propeller anemometer. So that's
taking in the wind direction and speed. And
that is at the 10 meter level on
(08:10):
the tower. And our towers, by the way,
are about 34 feet tall.
You go underneath that and at the 9
meter level, we are taking
temperature and then keep on going down to
the 2 meter level, which is approximately 6
feet high.
That's where we take in more
data, including temperature, air pressure, dew point relative
humidity. We also have a leaf wetness sensor
(08:32):
at our sites attached to that 2 meter
bar. And obviously that is very advantageous
when it comes to looking at
evaporation rates, evapotranspiration
rates
at the different sites across the state.
And then you go down beneath the ground
and that's where we're measuring
soil temperatures and soil moisture in the various
(08:52):
depths. Now I know at one of the
talks that you gave for us just recently,
you talked about some of these instruments can
actually do, is it 3 d images? Is
that correct? Yeah, so we do have the
capability
with our webcams
to look at infrared imagery,
our different sites across the state. So that
gives us a good idea of how
(09:14):
vegetation is behaving. Is it too wet? Is
it too dry?
And of course, the webcams themselves, we continue
to increase our fleet of those. We went
from
23 webcams operational
at the start of last fall and September.
Now we're pushing 60. And I could tell
you that even now, our field technicians are
out and about
(09:35):
at sites that do not have webcams,
installing those and deploying those.
And we hope to have most of our
sites fitted with real time webcam imagery that
will update every 5 minutes as opposed to
every 15 or 30 as it had been
previously for the sites
that were equipped with webcams
prior. So this is big news for us.
(09:57):
It's also big news for the folks at
the National Weather Service who warn for thunderstorm
activity,
emergency management, and it's good for the public
use as well to be able to hop
on the website and check out what's going
on at the site near them. Yeah, I
think that's huge for advancement. I don't know
if you can slow that down in real
(10:17):
time actual time, but that would be fascinating
to watch.
Little sidebar there. But speaking of access, how
can the public access the Kentucky Mesonet site?
And like you said, there's several counties on
there you're working to add towards more. So
where should people go to to check that
out? So kymesonet.org,
that is the site that will take you
directly to the main page. Once you're there,
(10:39):
the first thing you'll see will be the
temperatures, at least right now anyway. I can
tell you that our website is getting ready
to undergo
some changes,
particularly with the main page. We are going
to be adding
a lot of new maps with a lot
of different
parameters,
everything from
24, 48 hour weather comparisons
(11:00):
to heating and cooling degree days, which come
into play, especially
as we get into the growing season, which
will be upon us before we know it.
We've talked about degree days, that would be
the difference there above and below 65 degrees,
as far as the amount of energy needed
to heat things up or cool things down.
Heat in the seas or apparent temperatures, wind
(11:21):
chill values, and comparisons with those. A lot
more of those parameters will be coming down
the pike on our website soon. So we're
very excited about that. We also have an
app that is Kentucky Mesonet, which you can
download for the iPhone or for the Android.
I have it downloaded to my phone. In
fact, it's usually the first app I check
when I get up and rolling in the
morning, because not only can you get the
(11:43):
current conditions there for the site nearest you,
you can also look at a 36 hour
forecast available
from the National Weather Service
tailored for that site. That's awesome. So you
can take it on the go. You don't
just have to be in front of a
computer to watch it. So that's awesome. Is
that a free app as well? Yes. That
app is absolutely free.
(12:04):
And I should point out too that Kentucky
Mesonet is under the hat
of the Kentucky Climate Center. And we also
have a website with that, kyclimate
dotorg. The Mesonet site link is included in
that particular webpage. We also have
hydrologic information there, agricultural
information through different links. You can see what's
(12:27):
occurring with drought or lack thereof with the
information that we have on that website as
well. So kymesonet.org
and kyclimate.org.
Yeah. That's awesome. Especially with all the different
measurement tools that you all have. And it
seems like spring brings the rain, but then
the summer is more the drought, fall can,
I guess, go either way? In the wintertime,
(12:49):
everybody's wanting to know is there ice, is
there snow, you know, what affects their crops
if they're in the dormancy stage, and so
that's just a wealth of options there and
I know my mind's blown so and I'll
have to add that to my list about
downloading the app. I do want to transition
just a little bit because
one of the main reasons I had you
(13:09):
on the podcast was to talk to you
about this recent change
that they've added to the USDA
plant hardiness zone. And, you know, for Kentucky,
we have always for as long as I
can remember, I'll put it that way, we've
always been in zone 6b.
And in 2023,
in the latter part, I think it was
November, they switched that over to zone 7a.
(13:31):
So can you talk to us, I know
that you've been in weather for a long
time. So could you tell us maybe a
little bit about what climate trends that we're
seeing for the state of Kentucky? Sure. So
since the start of the millennium, particularly around
2000, we're getting warmer in Kentucky and we're
also getting wetter
in Kentucky.
And because we're getting
(13:53):
warmer, particularly during the winter season, we have
seen that change in the plant zone hardiness
from what was 6B
for most of the state for a long
period of time
to now 7A
for most of the Commonwealth, and that would
include the Bowling Green area. In fact, even
7B conditions are creeping up now from out
of Tennessee and into portions of far
(14:15):
Southwest Kentucky and areas along the Tennessee line.
And basically what that means is that because
we're getting warmer,
we are now seeing a hardiness
of what was 0 to -five
for vegetation during the winter season, now bumped
up to 0
to 5 degrees above. That would be for
(14:36):
zone
7A. So some of the plants and vegetation
that might've been optimal for growth in 6B,
well now they may be more susceptible to
cold snaps since we have jumped zones. You
take what happened in December 2022,
for instance, right before Christmas,
we saw the temperature in Bowling Green plummet
from 50 degrees
(14:57):
to sub zero in about 10 hours time.
That shock, if you will, combined with the
fact that we didn't have a whole lot
of snow to go with that Arctic blast,
resulted in the loss of a lot of
the tender vegetation
from portions of the state. I know in
my backyard, the dapper willows that once aligned
(15:17):
my fence line there with my neighbor's yard,
they did not survive that arctic blast. And
then some of the boxwoods were affected as
well. Even now, mine are still trying to
grow back
from that bitter blast that we had in
December 22. So that's one example of what
can happen around here when we get to
the sun cold snaps,
(15:37):
particularly with not a lot of snow cover.
If you have deeper snow cover, you're gonna
have more insulated ground.
In the instance of December 22,
we didn't have much of that. And the
snow we had was not enough to completely
cover the ground.
Unlike what we saw at least in the
Bowling Green area and parts of Southern Kentucky
just a couple of weeks ago, when we
(15:57):
had anywhere from 3 to 5 inches of
snow, even locally more. So the hope is
that this go around, because of that and
combined with the fact that the soils are
more moist now, certainly than they were back
in the fall season,
hopefully any damage to vegetation with this particular
cold snap was very, very minimal. Only time
will tell.
Course, we're still only in January. We've got
(16:19):
a ways to go before things start to
perk back up again as we head toward
the spring season. But one thing that already
looks different this year as opposed to last
is that we don't have the early season
growth
of the spring flowers, like the daffodils, buttercups.
They were already in bloom by the end
of January last year. I'm not seeing that
around the area this time. And of course,
(16:41):
the cold mid month was one reason for
that.
There are indications that we could be looking
at more cold before the season is out,
particularly in mid to late February. So that
could slow
the early season budding and blooming process. Whereas
last year,
we already had some trees leafing out during
the 2nd week of February, including those dapper
(17:01):
willows that I told you about earlier. So
it's amazing how things can change from one
season to the next year in the state
of Kentucky.
Yes. And I have to ask you, I
know you mentioned there December of 2022
where we had so many phone calls as
a result of all that.
People's boxwoods weren't looking well. It seems like
(17:21):
the laurels got hit pretty hard, and there
was another number ones too. But for December
of 2021,
you know, like when Bowling Green had the
tornadoes
just left, right, and here, there, and everywhere,
it seemed like and you mentioned we're warmer
and we're wetter.
I guess that's one of the trends that
you're seeing too, especially for the month of
December. Nobody really thinks about storm weather in
(17:44):
the month of December. You know, I guess,
Kentucky with us being a transition zone, we
can get anything really.
Yeah. Anything goes here in Kentucky any time
of year and any time of day. And
December 2021 in that catastrophic tornado outbreak was
a prime example.
That was an unusually warm month for Kentucky,
back the warmest ever December
(18:07):
for Bowling Green and a lot of surrounding
cities. So when you combine the fact that
the things are getting warmer, particularly in the
winter season,
you have more capacity
for the atmosphere to hold more moisture, more
water vapor.
So if you get a strong storm system
moving in to such an environment, like you
had there lay on that night, December 10th,
(18:27):
and into the wee hours of December 11th,
2021,
that's a recipe
for trouble. Particularly if you have some strong
jet stream energy
involved where the wind's about 5,000 feet off
the ground or blowing
70 to 80 miles an hour. All the
ingredients came together, unfortunately, that night for what
was a terrible tornado outbreak. And Kentucky Mesonet
(18:48):
was part of measuring just how fast those
winds were
in some of the strongest storms. In fact,
we said not 1, but 2 wind records
in the span of 1 hour
at a couple of our sites in the
western part of the state. The site near
Mayfield, which is located to 6 miles outside
of the city,
measured a top wind gust of 107
miles an hour. That was at 9:25
(19:11):
on the night of December 10th.
With that information combined with what they were
seeing on radar,
the folks at the National Weather Service in
Paducah responsible for, warning that area
issued a tornado emergency for the city
of Mayfield.
Fast forward to 1 hour later, that EF4
tornado had moved through Mayfield, did so much
(19:31):
destruction there,
stayed on the ground through Marshall, Lyon, into
Caldwell counties.
Once it arrived at Princeton,
at the UK facility there,
it produced a wind gust of 120 miles
an hour,
120.1
to be exact.
And that happened at 10:30 that night of
10th. So that is recognized as the new
(19:53):
state win record
for Kentucky.
That win, by the way, actually destroyed
our tower. We have just one piece of
it, the very tip top remaining here, our
operations center at Western Kentucky University. So that
just goes to show that
we've got
that power here with Kentucky Mesonet to
(20:14):
measure
the weather with real time
every 5 minutes for advanced warning and for
hazard mitigation and for saving lives. That's what
it's all about. Exactly. And these tools are
very helpful to kind of watch the weather
and be alert.
I was gonna say, with a lot of
the resources
that you all have at Kentucky Mesonet, is
(20:34):
there any other thing that we need to
know about as further resources available?
Sure. So there's a wealth of information when
you go to our websites that I mentioned
earlier.
You could go to kentuckymessonad.org,
go to the data tab, which is about
midway over.
And if you want to see both monthly
and yearly summaries for all of our 79
(20:55):
sites, it's available right there. So for instance,
if you want to go check out the
WKU farm site and see how things have
trended all the way back to
its inception of the late 2000s,
you can go there and see how things
have trended like during the month of June,
for example, in the middle of the growing
seasons. What years had
(21:15):
rather dry Junes as opposed to ones that
were rather wet? How did temperatures
compare and contrast? You go back to 2012,
that's one of the years that's interesting to
look up because we had a very terrible
drought,
high impact event across the Commonwealth, particularly the
central and the western part of the state
where it was severe
(21:35):
to exceptional
during the summer and stayed that way all
the way into fall. We haven't had a
year quite like that since, but we've had
some years where we've had these, what we
call flash droughts,
where we go from having
soils that are not necessarily
fully saturated, but at least to sufficiently
wet enough to all of a sudden being
(21:57):
in
moderate to not severe drought. We had not
1 or 2 of those
last year. 1 happened to occur during the
late spring to early summer months.
We broke out of that in late June
into July with plenty of rain. And then
lo and behold, things turned dry again by
the beginning of September.
And thus came a second drought, which turned
(22:17):
into a hydrologic drought, late fall into the
early part of winter. At least now we're
breaking out of that. But you can also
go to our website
and look at soil temperature
and moisture trends dating back several weeks for
the 60 or so sites that include
that data. You can even go back for
the last couple of weeks and see when
the January fall occurred,
(22:39):
when temperature is warm from all those days
we had that were freezing
to going out of the forties, then going
into the fifties. And it was interesting,
Kristen, to know that soil temperatures at a
4 inch depth across parts of the state
were hovering around 32 degrees as late as
about January 22nd, 23rd. Well, once we warm
things up, we saw
(22:59):
those soil temperatures, the top soil anyway,
bounce some 8 to 10 degrees in just
one day's time.
So that change was pretty dramatic. And of
course, as we get into the growing season,
a lot of folks like to plant tomatoes.
They're very time sensitive, very frost sensitive, as
you know.
So a good way to gauge how that
topsoil is trending with temperatures is through our
(23:22):
website at kymesonet.org.
Yeah. I know after this winter season, it
seems like people are ready and anxious to
get outside and plant, and tomatoes is that
number one vegetable that everybody likes to plant.
And so when do we generally recommend for
planting tomatoes
according to that weather, like you said, for
the frost free dates? Because I know Eastern
(23:43):
Kentucky varies from South Central even into the
Western part of the states. So what do
you generally recommend
there? Well, for northern and eastern parts of
Kentucky, generally, you wanna wait until
May. Usually, the old adage goes, if you
wait till after Kentucky Derby, which is the
1st Saturday of May, you're generally okay. And
(24:03):
I think the same is also true for
the central and western regions. We have 4
climate divisions by the way, in the state
of Kentucky.
And even though it is warmer in the
south and west generally than it is in
the north and east, We could still have
those seasons where we have these late season
frost
that can do damage to tomatoes at anything
(24:24):
that is not as hardy or as frost
sensitive. I go back to 4 years ago,
2020,
We had a very warm start to spring,
particularly during late March
April. And then all of a sudden we
had
frost and freezing temperatures
around May 8th 9th, pretty deep into the
month of May. That was damaging to the
wheat crop, which had already bearded out and
(24:46):
matured by that point
and damaged or killed any tomatoes that have
been planted
by that point. So slow your whole gardeners
when it comes to planting things like tomatoes,
squash, zucchini.
I know if we go into these long
stretches where it could be in the 70s
or even the 80s, like in March April,
the temptation is to want to go ahead
(25:06):
and put those into the ground. But you're
never really free of frosted freeze around here
until
I think sometimes into the 2nd week of
May. That's especially true over in the northern
and eastern parts of the state. And by
the way, we saw this last year, although
it happened earlier, talked earlier about the things
budding out and leaping out with trees and
vegetation
(25:26):
so early in the year of 2023.
And all of a sudden,
here came the 3rd week of March, right
at the beginning of spring of 20th, we
had temperatures tumble into the teens.
That did considerable damage to fruit crops, particularly
the peach crop last year, not just here
in Kentucky, but also into portions
of the deep south. So that's one of
the trends we've been noting here in this
(25:48):
decade of the 2020s,
where the winters are warmer, the growing seasons
overall are getting longer. However,
you have to be very careful when it
comes to planting anything frost or freeze sensitive
so soon. Because
if you get that late in the season
where we drop below 32 degrees,
and especially if we drop down to 28
degrees, that's what we consider hard freeze territory,
(26:11):
that can be very damaging to anything that's
frost or freeze sensitive. I believe it was
was it 2,007 or 2,008 when we had
that late spring freeze? Because it seemed like
we had a earlier Easter because I can
remember
being in my Easter dress and it was
snowing outside.
And it seems like we had that lot
of damage to our landscape trees and because
(26:32):
I remember they just they got a lot
of damage from that too.
But with all these dates that you've mentioned,
I know we've mentioned several dates throughout the
podcast here, but it seems like history has
a way of repeating itself for sure. Right?
It does. And I remember it was 2007,
the year you're referring to where we had
the Easter weekend freeze.
(26:52):
That event was particularly
sinister
for a lot of the plants and vegetation
because it was one of those years where
we came out of one of the warmest
marches
ever here in Kentucky,
a lot of days with highs of the
low to even middle eighties.
And then all of a sudden,
temperatures crashed on Easter weekend. This was well
(27:12):
into April.
And then we had not only snow, but
we had temperatures getting down into the lower
twenties
at a point where a lot of the
trees had leafed out. So as a result,
a lot of those leaves had that singed
look. I remember losing boxwoods in my other
home because of that event. And I think
I planted a cherry dogwood tree in my
front yard that did not make it through
(27:34):
that event. It was a young tree at
the time.
So that's another example of one of those
late season frost and freeze occurrences that we
seem to be getting more of here in
recent years. I was gonna say, going back
to the tomatoes, I do remember that occurrence
because it's like people had planted right after
Derby Day. And then I remember everybody like
(27:54):
scrounging to get buckets and whatever to cover
it up. So you really need to be
on the weather and it seems like you've
covered really well what Kentucky Mesonet can do
and hopefully our listeners can download that free
downloadable app and put it on their phone
and check, like you said, wherever the nearest
location is. I know you're still, he said,
working on getting things in the eastern part
(28:15):
of the state, but it's so nice to
have that information at our fingertips. And hopefully
a lot of our listeners can download that.
Shane, I know that you are on social
media. Do you care to share how we
can, like, follow you on social media? Sure.
So we have a Facebook page for Kentucky
Mesonet
as well as, what is now X formerly
(28:36):
Twitter.
And you can follow us there for updates.
You can also follow Kentucky Climate Center
on the X platform.
We post several things
throughout the day and throughout the week, ranging
from US Drought Monitor. And that by the
way, updates every Thursday morning, the indices for
that are tabulated
(28:56):
on Tuesday.
And our state climatologist to Doctor. Brodsky
is one of those that helps tabulate those
indices. A lot of that information coming from
our Mesonet sites through soil moisture
and all that is fed into that drought
monitor. So always watch for that every Thursday
morning.
(29:16):
We've seen some improvement there lately with all
the rain that we've had. So we're hoping
that
the moderate drought condition that still exists for
central and eastern parts of the state is
eliminated with this next update. But you can
check there on social media. We also repost,
information from the National Centers For Environmental Information
as they,
(29:37):
put out some great data and stats with
regard to not just Kentucky, but the Midwest
Climate Region,
which we fall underneath the head of. And
also the Midwest Regional Climate Center that's based
at Purdue University up in Indiana.
They cover our region
as well. And we'd like to repost
the things that they send out on social
(29:58):
media. So several ways you can follow us
there.
Yeah. I know that I enjoy some of
your posts on social media just to check
out, especially it was really comical, like, during
the winter season. And I think you all
posted, like, a real cool bubble that was
in like the cold and I don't think
I've ever witnessed that. So that was really
eye opening too. Yeah, so those frozen bubbles,
(30:19):
that was a couple of weeks ago. We
had, one person there from Taylor County
send us a couple of shots and that
real bitterly cold air. We had temperature sub
zero,
you can slowly blow those bubbles and then
wash them free. So that was the, we
have a picture of the week that we
post to our Facebook page, as well as
the Twitter page through the Mesonet. So we
(30:41):
always get some really cool submissions that way.
And you can email those to us as
well. My email is shane.
Hollandeywku.edu,
or you can send it
to kymesonet@wku.edu.
Awesome. I guess my next if we have
another winter weather event, I'm gonna try to
(31:01):
get my 4 year old out there and
try to recreate that frozen bubble. So, Shane,
thank you so much for coming on the
podcast. You're a wealth of knowledge and we're
so lucky to have you in our area.
So thanks again for joining us on the
Sunshine Gardening podcast. Thank you so much for
having me, Kristen. Take care. Thank you for
tuning in to today's episode of the Sunshine
(31:22):
Gardening podcast.
If you enjoyed the show, make sure to
follow me and leave a review on your
favorite podcast platform.
I would appreciate your support and feedback.
Also, I want to extend a special thank
you to Shane Hollandy for being our guest
on the Sunshine Gardening podcast.
To access the show notes for episode 24
(31:44):
with Shane,
please visit me on the blog at warren
countyagriculture.com.
Remember, keeping yourself updated about the weather conditions
can immensely impact the success of your garden.
Whether you need to prepare for an unexpected
frost or ensure maximum sunlight for your plants,
(32:05):
being weather wise is vital for a flourishing
garden.
Stay tuned for more insightful tips and discussions
to elevate your gardening game. Until next time,
happy gardening.
Thanks for listening to the Sunshine Gardening podcast
with Kristen Hildebrand.
If you enjoyed today's content, make sure to
hit the subscribe button wherever you get your
(32:27):
podcast to catch future segments of the Sunshine
Gardening podcast.
Gardeners keep on digging and learning more about
gardening so the sun shines brighter over your
Kentucky garden. The Sunshine Gardening podcast with and
Hildebrand is a production of the University of
Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.
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