The Oklahoma Mesonet: decision-support products for agriculture and natural resources using a mesoscale automated weather station network

Operational since 1994, the Oklahoma Mesonet is a statewide automated weather station network operated jointly by Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma. Covering the state of Oklahoma, the Mesonet is a mesoscale network in both space and time. There are currently 116 remote monitoring stations, with at least one in every county. Using an already existing statewide telecommunications network, weather observations are reported in real-time every 5 minutes, while soil observations are reported every 15 to 30 minutes. This weather and soil data, in the form of various products, is available to users over the Internet only minutes after it is received.

A multi-purpose network, the Oklahoma Mesonet has become increasingly important throughout Oklahoma for weather-based management decisions in agriculture and natural resources. Since 1994 an increasing number of value-added products have been developed for this particular community of users. These products are currently offered over the Oklahoma AgWeather web site (http://agweather.mesonet.org).

In addition to products featuring the weather/soil observations themselves, various value-added products based on specific models have been developed. Examples include weather-based models for insect management (alfalfa weevil, pecan nut casebearer), disease management (pecan scab, peanut leafspot, watermelon anthracnose, spinach white rust), irrigation scheduling for turf and agronomic crops, cattle heat and cold stress, atmospheric dispersion conditions, and wildland fire danger. Some of these products also incorporate NCEP model forecast data for predictive capabilities over the next three to four days.

This paper will provide an update on the Oklahoma Mesonet itself as well as the various products currently offered of relevance to agriculture and natural resources. It will be seen that a mesoscale automated weather station network, in this case the Oklahoma Mesonet, can provide valuable assistance for weather-based management decisions in agriculture and natural resources.