Peaks 2 Plains, a private weather firm based in Colorado Springs, has added a familiar face – and voice – to its team.

Veteran meteorologist Merry Matthews, who delivered forecasts at KRDO for more than seven years, recently joined the weather venture, launched by former Fox 21 weatherman Matt Meister in January.

“Merry is one of the most respected meteorologists in Colorado,” Meister said. “Her experience, credibility and passion for serving the community perfectly aligns with what we’re building at Peaks2Plains Weather.”

Matthews, who left KRDO in March, joins a growing movement of meteorologists who have gone private in an effort to broaden the scope of their weather coverage.

“I had a really awesome time (at KRDO),” she said. “I made a lot of friends, I got to connect with the community, and I’m grateful for the opportunity that I had there.

“But the longer you’re in television, the more you are aware that you are constrained to a certain amount of time. When you are covering almost one-third of the state, you need more than four to five minutes.”

Peaks 2 Plains combines a website, a weather app, social media and a 24-hour channel on Roku and Fire TV. Matthews said she likes the idea of serving the broader southern Colorado community rather than just the major metropolitan areas.

“People who live out in the Eastern Plains or the Sangre de Cristo Mountains deserve just as much of a detailed forecast as the major metro areas,” she said. “With Peaks 2 Plains, we are able to go into as much detail as we need, or go to certain pockets of the viewing area that deserve more attention in the moment.”

Matthews began her broadcast career on the heels of a tragedy. Fresh out of college, she joined a television station in the Huntsville, Ala., area in 2011 following a tornado outbreak that killed more than 350 people across six states, including roughly 90 residents in her new market.

“I had to get really good at the job, really fast, because I was talking to a grief-stricken community,” Matthews said. “There was no room for error. Those were the moments that really built me.”

After a five-year stint with national broadcast channel Weather Nation, based in Denver, Matthews joined KRDO in 2019.

Living in southern Colorado, and connecting with its residents, has instilled in Matthews an abiding respect for her viewers, she said.

“We have an audience that’s a little above average in their understanding of how weather patterns work,” Matthews said. “They’re smart people, who are interested in the science, so I talk to them like smart people.”

Meister and Matthews bring complementary strengths to Peaks 2 Plains, Matthews said.

“Southern Colorado has a multitude of different weather elements, and models will only tell you so much,” she said. “You have to be here to know the nuances that the models don’t always pick up on. That’s something Matt is really good at.”

Matthews’s superpower lies in severe weather. She considers herself a “now-caster,” proficient at processing radar information during high-impact weather events and presenting it to viewers in an accessible way.

“You need to know a little bit of everything to do what we do, but every one of us has our own bread and butter, a thing that they’re really good at,” she said. “Mine is severe weather and radar proficiency – stuff that’s happening now.”

Meister said that Matthews adds a second trusted voice to the weather venture and makes Peaks 2 Plains the most experienced weather tandem in southern Colorado.

“With Merry joining the team, our viewers get decades of combined experience focusing on one mission, serving southern Colorado,” he said. “This is about trust, consistency and being there when it matters most.”

Matthews expressed excitement at the prospect of delivering more detailed, customized weather insights to southern Colorado residents.

“Having the liberty to do that is invaluable,” she said. “It’s invaluable to the public, and to us. It’s what we were trained to do.”