Agriculture News

Three WKU graduate students working from the WKU Disaster Science Operations Center (DSOC) recently provided heat-stress monitoring and weather support at the Louder Than Life Festival, held in Louisville, Ky. and attended by nearly 80,000 people. The four-day event took place September 18-21, 2025.

“In addition to inclement weather, these large music events in September are particularly susceptible to heat stress,” said Dr. Josh Durkee, Professor and University Meteorologist in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences (EEAS) at Western Kentucky University.

Luke Ferguson of Coal Grove, Oh., Harmony Guercio of Knoxville, Tn., and Thomas Payette of Bowling Green, Ky., worked to monitor and predict heat stress using weather instruments to target specific conditions and locations for potential heat issues.

“Working with DSOC at Louder Than Life provided firsthand insight into how even a brief storm can disrupt large-scale events and highlighted the importance of precise weather communication,” Guercio, a first-year graduate student, said.

The group uses methods that are scalable and repeatable for outdoor events. For the Louder Than Life Festival, students in DSOC collaborated with the National Weather Service in Louisville to work on forecast details.

Their work also connected them with local emergency management officials overseeing safety operations.

"Louisville Metro Emergency Management was proud to welcome Western Kentucky University meteorology students behind the scenes at Louder Than Life,” Jody Meiman, Executive Director of Louisville Metro Emergency Management, said. “This unique opportunity allowed students to observe real-time emergency planning, weather monitoring, and public safety coordination in a dynamic, high-impact environment. This hands-on experience reflects our commitment to supporting student learning and preparing future professionals."

The collaboration provided students the experience of professional emergency managers and meteorologists working together to ensure safety during large-scale events.

“Working in DSOC has provided me the opportunity to work everything from FBI investigations to large-scale mass gathering events,” Ferguson, a second-year graduate student, said. “Louder Than Life encompassed all hazards over the four-day span, from heat stress to thunderstorms. It was an amazing learning experience, and further solidified my decision to attend graduate school at WKU and work in DSOC.”

Since 2016, WKU students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels from the Meteorology, Emergency Management Disaster Science, and Homeland Security Science programs have been providing weather and emergency management-related support, leading to their involvement in major national events like the Chicago Marathon, Special Olympics USA Games, NASCAR, the National Cherry Blossom Festival, and more.

“I’m so proud of the incredible work our faculty and students are doing,” said Dr. Leslie North, Chair of the Department of EEAS at WKU. “Being trusted to provide weather and emergency management support for the Louder Than Life Festival is both an honor and an invaluable opportunity for applied learning. Opportunities like this give our students real-world experiences that we simply can’t replicate in the classroom.”

The WKU Ogden College of Science and Engineering, which encompasses EEAS and DSOC, emphasizes an applied learning approach in tandem with foundations learned in the classroom. DSOC provides a unique opportunity for experiential learning and offers support for a wide range of real-world events of varying sizes. DSOC students have also worked with specific professional initiatives stemming from the FBI, filming crews, and other concerts and festivals.

“These hands-on learning opportunities are directly preparing me for my future career,” Guercio said.

Louder Than Life, an annual rock and metal festival, is an outdoor, rain-or-shine event that first took place in 2014. This year’s event featured high-profile names in the rock music genre, including Slayer, Deftones, Rob Zombie, Stone Temple Pilots, and more.