An Inside Look at the Benefits, Impacts, and Successes of NOAA's National Mesonet Program

The National Mesonet Program (NMP) grew from a National Academy of Sciences report that established the need for a nationwide “network of networks” for a Weather-Ready Nation. This report focused on the need to acquire high resolution, lower latency data from all available observational datasets, both federal and non-federal. The NMP provides the National Weather Service (NWS) with data from approximately 35,000 real-time weather stations, including surface and upper-air data from mobile platforms such as vehicle- and aircraft-mounted sensors. Since its inception in 2009, the NMP has grown to an expansive network of 40 partners nationwide including participants from the public, private, and academic sectors.

By leveraging observations from these partners, the NMP is able to fill large temporal and spatial data gaps across the country for a fraction of the cost. More high-quality data leads to more accurate forecasts and more well-informed decision-making during critical weather situations. This data in turn allows the NWS to improve the performance of their mission: to provide accurate and timely forecasts and warnings for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy. This program is a prime example of a mutually beneficial public-private partnership and sets the groundwork for many more to come.

With 40 partners currently providing data to the NMP, there are a wide variety of success stories of how this data has had an impact both economically and societally. Data from the program is used in various research and planning analyses, leading to well-informed business decisions and sound public policy. Most importantly, the NWS Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) have seen great value with the addition of NMP observations into their daily forecasting routine, especially during high-stakes severe weather events. This talk reviews several of the valuable collaborations that have been facilitated by data made available under the NMP, including the examples explored below.

In recent years, NMP Partner Coastal Carolina University (CCU) has deployed a set of SODARs at locations along the South Carolina coastline. The inclusion of these SODAR vertical observations filled a prior data gap and allowed the wind resource assessment models to more fully resolve the actual vertical wind gradient in the lower boundary layer. Private sector studies revealed that the velocity gradient was much steeper than previously expected, indicating that wind energy may indeed be economically viable along that coastline, where previously no such potential was indicated. This information has led to increased funded research and interest from various national and international wind energy companies. CCU's discoveries have been forwarded to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for inclusion in the next update of their wind resource maps for the area.

Further inland, a major flooding event in Kentucky during the summer of 2017 underscores how valuable NMP data is to the NWS and the communities they serve. July 22^nd, 2017 saw daily rainfall totals of over 5 inches for parts of northern Kentucky, leading to flash flooding and widespread damage. NMP Partner Western Kentucky operates the Kentucky Mesonet with 68 stations located across the state. As reported by local NWS personnel, the steady stream of real-time, high temporal frequency data from these stations was used to issue multiple flash flood warnings during this event with enough lead time for the public to react and get to safety. This was deemed critical as there were no fatalities.

These and other case studies to be presented highlight the widespread benefits of the National Mesonet Program. The Program gives our nation’s public and private meteorologists over 30 times the amount of surface observational data, as well as data in the vertical and on our nation's roads. The Program has provided critical technical and funding support to the 40 public and private partner mesonets, with additional participants being added yearly. New and exciting research opportunities and operational forecast and warning improvements have blossomed from the NMP; most importantly, providing critical support to the National Weather Service in its missions to provide forecasts, watches, and warnings in support of a Weather-Ready Nation.