Integration of NYS Mesonet Data Into New York Daily Operations

Weather disasters such as Hurricane Irene (2011) and Hurricane Sandy (2012) severely impacted New York. These disasters were compounded by the relative scarcity of conventional, in situ, trusted observational weather sources (such as ASOS) in much of upstate New York. These factors were the impetus for the installation of the recently-installed New York State Mesonet (NYSM), which is a sophisticated $30M network comprising 126 “standard” sites, 17 “profiler” sites, 17 “flux” sites, and 20 “snow” sites spread across NY.

This presentation will examine a variety of ongoing (and future) uses of this new valuable data source. Obvious benefits include enhancing situational awareness at the federal (NOAA/NWS) and state (emergency management & response) levels. However, NYSM data is useful for a number of other government and private sector purposes. The transportation and energy sectors in particular make significant use of NYSM data. These uses range from the simple (snowfall reporting) to the complex (renewable energy, outage forecasting) to the obscure (infectious diseases). Other mundane uses include real-time forecast verification for a number of purposes. Several of the operational uses of this excellent dataset will be showcased.