“There is no such thing as bad weather, only different types of good weather.”
Hi! My name is Matt Standridge and I wanted to thank you for visiting my personal website.
I am a Christian, meteorologist, adventurer, and aviation enthusiast who loves creation. There is so much to do and see in this world. I personally have a tendency to look up at the skies. Weather is powerful, awe-some, intense, and an absolute blast to forecast (or try to! haha). Whether it is pouring, snowing, or shining, weather is a topic everyone talks about. It is the story to talk about. I guess I liked it so much that I decided to earn a degree in it!
CURRENT
Currently I am a meteorologist at WTHR-TV in Indianapolis, Indiana. You’ll mainly find me on weekend evenings on Channel 13th at 6PM and 11PM. During the week I work on weather projects and fill-in with more traffic and weather.
It’s good to be home where I grew up. I love the people here, the Midwest hometown values, and a sky that always keeps us on our toes. I hope to call Indiana home again for the rest of my life.
PAST
I have family all across the country, and have lived as far west as Oklahoma and as far east as Cambridge, England. I love how much there is to see on this planet that we share and think it is our responsibility to take care of it as best we can so that future generations can enjoy creation like we have.
I first truly started to fall in love with the weather around 7 years old while in New York. My house was located on the Tug Hill Plateau, an plateau prone to over 200 inches of snow a year, mostly from Lake Ontario. I then saw the more severe side of Mother Nature in Indiana throughout junior high and high school. My senior year I was blessed to receive a full-ride Eli Lilly Endowment Scholarship to go to Valparaiso University in northwest Indiana, just outside of Chicago. As a Lilly scholar, we strive to give back to the community and make Indiana a better place to live and work.
COLLEGE
While at Valparaiso University, I was involved with our on-campus TV station, VUTV providing live weather updates to campus. In addition I also served with Brothers Reaching Out and Calvary Church. By my senior year, I accepted a position to work as a weekend meteorologist with WBND ABC57 in South Bend, IN. I was able to finish my classes during the week and directly apply what I was learning to my position with ABC on the weekends! By the Spring 2017, I graduated Summa Cum Laude with my Bachelor of Science in Meteorology, with a minor in Digital Media.
CAREER
The summer of 2017 was possibly the best summer in my life. I accepted an internship as an aviation radar meteorologist and forecast for the State of North Dakota's Atmospheric Resource Board. My position involved forecasting for severe weather, and once it came I nowcasted and guided aircraft in and around storms bases around 3000-10000ft across the state. On some missions, I was able to ride along in the aircraft and "storm chase" in the skies.
My first full-time meteorology position was a meteorologist at KFSM 5NEWS in Fayetteville, AR where I started on the weekend and was promoted to weekday mornings. While in the Natural State, I was a host of a TV series called "Adventure Arkansas" where I highlighted fun, exciting, and scenic things that folks can do right in their neighborhoods or just a short drive away!
In 2020 during the pandemic, I transferred within company to 3News WKYC-TV, an NBC affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio. I was the weekend meteorologist busy with special weather projects during the week. We launched new adventure TV series similar to “Adventure Arkansas” called GO-HIO.
After a year in Ohio, my company transferred me back to KFSM 5NEWS in western Arkansas to become the chief, leading severe weather coverage for NW Arkansas and the River Valley. It was fun to be back and an honor to take over for the long-time, previous chief Garrett Lewis after his retirement from tv.
After a couple years as chief, my hometown station called and I came back home to Indiana.
LIFE
Outside of weather, some of my hobbies include exercising (especially swimming), traveling internationally, chasing storms, and drinking sweet iced tea on the homestead. Even more important to me are the people in my life. I love spending time with twin and the rest of my family. Investment into relationships has returns beyond what any 401K can give you. I would rather go deep versus wide in my relationships with others.
The next thing I’m looking forward is to my wedding in June 2025 to Merissa Ross. We grew up in the same hometown of Centerville, Indiana.
If you'd like to reach out to me, you can click on my "Contact Me" page, or visit my Facebook page, "Meteorologist Matt Standridge", on Twitter: @standridgewx, or on TikTok: @weathermanmatt.
Fun Facts
I have a twin, and no we are not identical — However I am the oldest twin!
I can fold 9 different types of towel animals: swan, crab, lobster, elephant, snail, monkey, frog, kitten, and sea turtle.
I lived in Cambridge, England for four and a half months.
Why I fell for the Weather...
It first started in upstate New York. When I was 5 years old, I moved to Camden, NY which is on the southern Tug Hill Plateau. I remember my first flight into Syracuse, NY. When we descended below the cloud ceiling, there was white stuff everywhere! This new world was so cold but waiting for me to explore. That winter and the several winters that followed were so much fun. My brother and I loved the snow. The Tug Hill Plateau, a small region in between Lake Ontario and the Adirondack Mountains, is famous (or infamous?) for some of the heaviest lake effect snow in the USA. I remember staying up late at night watching the weatherman on TV predict how much snow we were going to get. Will we get 6 inches or 24 inches tonight? If school was cancelled the next day, my twin brother and I would spend most of our time on our sleds. We lived on a hill in the middle of a forest so the white wilderness was ours for the playing. We would sled and ski down our driveway, dig tunnels in the snow banks several feet high, start snowball wars, and walk onto the roof because there was so much snow. Ever since those snowy winters, I knew that I wanted to be a meteorologist.
Snowy Night, Valparaiso, IN (Winter 2016)
Favorite Scriptures
"The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." Numbers 6:24-26 NIV
"Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." Acts 4:29-30 NIV
"We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19 NIV