Established as a multi-purpose network, the Oklahoma Mesonet operates more than 110 surface observing stations that send data every 5 minutes to an operations center for data quality assurance, product generation, and dissemination. Quality-assured data are available within 5 minutes of the observation time. Since 1994, the Oklahoma Mesonet has collected 3.5 billion weather and soil observations and produced millions of decision-making products for its customers. The presentation will highlight the technical advances the Oklahoma Mesonet has achieved since its inception, design, and implementation during the early 1990s. These advances include the methods by which this operational network has been able to sustain a reputation for producing research-quality data for almost 13 years: data quality control/metadata, network design, accuracy and calibration of instrumentation, and the use of specialized instruments.