App Profile: Weather Alert App

Weather Alert is a multi-facet mobile weather application designed to 1) increase awareness in times of extreme weather, and 2) assist Kentucky farming operations with management and production-related decisions. Established in 2023, initial project funding for WeatherAlert was provided by a collaboration between the UK Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention (SCAHIP - https://www.uky.edu/scahip/), and Central Appalachian Regional Education and Research Center (CARERC - https://www.uky.edu/erc/).

Designed and hosted by the University of Kentucky Ag Weather Center and Center for Computational Sciences, this application was created with safety in mind. Extreme weather events have increased in frequency over recent decades. According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, a total of 85 billion dollar weather and climate disasters have impacted Kentucky since 1980. Fifteen have occurred in the past 5 years, alone, including unprecedented flooding across Eastern Kentucky in July of 2022 and one of the most prolific tornado outbreaks in Kentucky history on December 10, 2021. Unfortunately, it’s not a matter of “if” we see another disaster, but “when”. WeatherAlert garners the ability to not only send out severe weather alerts and distribute essential weather updates, but also serves as a critical resource for Kentucky Cooperative Extension in terms of emergency preparedness and response.

Agriculturally-speaking, WeatherAlert incorporates a number of tools and models available from the University of Kentucky Ag Weather Center. Established in 1978, the goal of the Ag Weather Center is to minimize weather and climate-related surprises for Kentucky residents and their agricultural needs, ultimately for profitable and sustainable production.