Development of a Statewide, Multiuse Surface and Vertical Profiling Network: An Overview of the New York State Mesonet

The New York State (NYS) Mesonet is comprised of 126 standard weather stations, spaced an average 19 miles apart, with at least one station in every county and borough across the state. Each station measures air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, precipitation, atmospheric pressure, solar radiation, soil moisture and temperature, and snow depth, and collects still photos. Additional non-standard measurements are collected at a sub-set of stations. A sub-network of 20 Mesonet “snow” sites measure snow water equivalent (SWE), and another sub-network of 17 Mesonet “surface energy budget” sites observe incoming and outgoing shortwave and longwave radiation; sensible, latent, and CO₂ fluxes; and ground heat flux. Yet another sub-network of 17 Mesonet “profiler” sites provide vertical profiles of temperature, moisture, and wind speed and direction, as well as diffuse radiation and global sky image photos. All data are collected, quality-controlled, and disseminated in near real-time every 5 minutes.

The NYS Mesonet stations were installed over a two year period between August 2015 and October 2017. Stations began collecting data as soon as they were installed, and several high-impact severe weather events were observed during the installation period. Standard site data now are disseminated via MADIS, and the National Weather Service and the New York Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES) are able to utilize Mesonet information directly within their operations. In its first year of operation, several hundred users have requested data, with an ever-increasing number of users each month. This presentation will provide a general overview of the network, preview several interesting case studies, and assess the wide variety of users making regular use of the data.