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Weather & Climate
Atmospheric Scientist
With a formal education in Atmospheric Science and a professional background in communications, Matt blends the two to provide expert analysis and forecasts and communicate the data in a format tailored to his clients. His work is global, with clients located from the United States and Canada to Australia.
Weather impacts a wide spectrum of industries, and it is crucial to understand when and how the impact will be felt. Matt has experience advising clients in agriculture, commodities, electric generation, insurance, litigation, oil and gas, and risk management sectors.
He worked in various broadcast news markets across the country for more than 20 years while also consulting with renewable energy and insurance companies, litigating attorneys, public policymakers, public works departments, and supply chain leaders. Throughout those two decades, he was awarded five Emmy Awards for excellence in weather broadcasting and multiple local-level awards. He was the 12th worldwide to earn the Certified Broadcast Meteorologist designation from the American Meteorological Association (AMS) and is a member of the AMS, National Weather Association, and American Geophysical Union. He retired from television in 2021 to focus on his growing clientele’s needs.
Weather5280 launched in 2012, followed by Makens Weather, LLC, which formed in 2016. Both companies grew quickly with a reputation for providing actionable weather and climate information specific to the clients’ needs. Weather5280 is a Colorado and Denver-focused product serving the area's public and private clients. Makens Weather is global with a primary focus on creating and communicating long-term climate forecasts for industries relying on seasonal forecasts and alerting stakeholders to short-term weather hazards.
He and his wife, an executive in the beef industry, live in Colorado, raising their two children.
Jessica Lebel
Atmospheric Scientist
Meteorologist Jessica Lebel was born and raised in Littleton, Colorado, and attended the University of Kansas, where she graduated with a degree in Atmospheric Science with an emphasis in forecasting.
Jessica started her meteorology career at a small cable television station in Lawrence, Kansas. After college, Jessica worked as a meteorologist in Grand Junction, Colorado, and Colorado Springs, Colorado, before returning to Denver. Jessica most recently worked at KDVR and KWGN in Denver, Colorado, as an on-air meteorologist for more than 6 years.
Cropping & Grazing
Management for Climate Resilience
Agricultural Data Scientist
A.J. Brown is the Data Specialist & Agronomist for the Colorado State University (CSU) Agriculture Water Quality Program.
He grew up on a small alfalfa farm and worked at a local CSU research farm in Rocky Ford, Colorado, where he learned the importance of agricultural research and outreach.
A.J. uses his experience with statistics, low-cost sensor development, modeling, and agronomy to monitor and protect the agricultural waters of Colorado. He received his M.Sc. degree in soil and crop science at CSU in 2021, with a project focusing on irrigation and soil salinity management in the CO Arkansas valley and the Indus River Valley in Sindh, Pakistan. He has extensive experience with using environmental data collected from commercial, or self-developed sensors to answer larger questions about a given environment. He also has expertise in using coding languages like python or R to apply advanced statistical methods to gain the most insight per data point.
Outside of his research, A.J. enjoys gardening, playing piano, and spending time with his wife at local breweries.