Matt Meister believes weather is the great unifier — a topic everyone cares about regardless of social, political or religious differences.

“We have differing views on almost everything, but everybody can agree that we don’t like wind,” Meister said, just hours after a wind-and-dust storm caused a deadly, multiple-vehicle crash on Interstate 25 near Pueblo.

“Weather affects everyone. We all live in it. It affects every person and every industry. It’s the one thing in a newscast that affects everyone watching it.”

When Meister, one of southern Colorado’s longest-tenured meteorologists, left the Fox 21 news team in November, it was a decision that came after months of deliberation and study. After more than 20 years of delivering forecasts to Colorado Springs living rooms, he found himself at a personal and professional crossroads.

“I was at the end of a five-year contract, which makes you sort of take stock of things,” Meister said. “And my wife and I are going to be empty-nesters in the fall, which is another milestone that makes you sort of take a step back and think about what the next phase of life is going to look like.”

Those two factors led Meister to create Peaks 2 Plains, a private weather firm that provides detailed, around-the-clock forecasts and updates “in a digital space wherever someone is who wants weather information,” he said.

Meister’s new venture, launched Jan. 1, combines a website, a weather app, social media and a 24-hour channel on Roku and Fire TV. Viewers who tune in to television newscasts primarily for the weather no longer have to wait, he said.

“When you have less than five minutes to deliver the weather (on a newscast), you have to leave things out,” Meister said.

“Now, I don’t have those time constraints, and I can talk more about the nuances and uncertainties that come with living in a city on the side of a 14,000-foot mountain. It allows me to serve my community better.”

Meister has been a fixture in Colorado Springs for more than two decades. After studying meteorology at Metro State University in Denver and working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, he worked at KRDO from 2001-2014.

“As my kids started getting older, I realized how much of their lives I was missing while working (the evening news) shift,” he said. “That’s why I joined the team at (School) District 49 as their communications director.”

In 2017, after receiving “an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Meister joined the news team at Fox 21, serving as lead meteorologist until Nov. 28, 2025.

As Meister closely monitored consumer trends, he realized that more and more people were shifting away from traditional media. Some consumers prefer mobile phone apps. Others depend on automated notifications or social media.

“The way people consume information has changed dramatically,” he said. “I wanted to build something that fit the needs of as many people as possible.”

Leaving the familiar realm of television news to start his own business was a daunting prospect, but Meister joined a cooperative of about 15 meteorologists with similar business models, and he’s learned a lot from their experiences.

“It’s a growing movement,” he said of the co-op. “There are 20 people scheduled to join the co-op this year.”

Mike Witcher, a former KOAA meteorologist who joined the cooperative two years ago, agreed the private weather sector is growing steadily.

“The No. 1 reason that people watch local news is for weather. That’s been proven to us, year-in and year-out,” said Witcher, who operates out of eastern Tennessee.

“This is going to be a game changer for how people consume weather information.”

Witcher cautions that starting a private weather firm is not necessarily for everyone.

“I don’t think someone can come right out of college and do something like this,” said Witcher, who worked at KOAA from 2002-2005. “I think it’s for people who have been in their community for years and have gained the trust of their viewers, like Matt, who’s been in that market for 30 years.”

“The people here know me, and they’ve seen me in their community for years,” Meister said. “They know that I’m affected by the weather in the same way they are, and I think I have earned their trust.”

Meister produces his weather content from a command center and studio he has built in his home.

“The ability to produce content at a professional level doesn’t require the investment that it did 20 years ago,” he explained. “It used to be more cost-restrictive because the equipment was so expensive. That’s not the case anymore.”

The name “Peaks 2 Plains” illustrated the breadth of Meister’s weather coverage area, he said.

“I cover Denver, because (Colorado Springs residents) go to Broncos and Nuggets, games, we shop there and we go to shows and concerts there,” he said.

“I cover ski resorts, because a lot of us like to ski. I cover from Denver to New Mexico, and from the Continental Divide to Kansas.”

Peaks 2 Plains is only a few months old, but Meister has ambitious long-range plans for the private weather firm.

“I want this to be a well-respected, useful information source for my community that will outlive me when I walk away from my working years,” he said.

“I built this with growth in mind. Down the road, we may be providing consumers with information outside the weather realm. Who knows?”

MEMORABLE WEATHER EVENTS

Matt Meister on some of the notable weather events he has covered in his career:

Waldo Canyon (2012) and Black Forest fires (2013)

“The loss of life and loss of homes from both of these fires stick with me. They were so different. With Waldo we watched the smoke for days, and then, boom! There it was, in town. Black Forest was different. The flames ignited and it roared immediately, burning all of the homes that first afternoon. No waiting at all. Everything happened at once.”

Holly Tornado (2007)

“The dryline sort of unexpectedly moved westward from Kansas as a larger storm system approached from the Great Basin. I was the only one on the air in southern Colorado when that tornado was moving into Holly from the south. It damaged a home of a family friend that my wife grew up with. Thankfully, they were OK.”

Holiday blizzards (2006)

“Two blizzards in a week! The first one on my birthday came in Dec. 20 into the 21st and was more focused from the Pikes Peak region into Denver and northeast Colorado. The second one had a bigger overall impact in southern Colorado and if you remember from that one, more than 10,000 cattle were killed in snowdrifts over the plains.”

Hail storms (2018)

“To have billion dollar damage-producing storms a couple months apart was a really good reminder that we do in fact live in hail-alley here over the high plains of Colorado. The storm in August took a classic path riding the surface moisture down Ute Pass out of Teller County and curling around the east side of Pikes Peak. The Fountain storm in June was unique because it was in the dead of night as moisture surged back into the foothills. They both put down some 3-inch hail and the August one even produced a 4-inch diameter stone! The real deal.”