October 15, 2009
Bowling
Green, Ky. - The Kentucky Mesonet has reached an important milestone in the effort to build a statewide weather and climate monitoring network with the signing of its 50th site license agreement.
“Getting to 50 sites is a tremendous accomplishment and represents the huge investment that has been made in building the network and in building support for the Mesonet across the state,” said Dr. Stuart Foster, director of the Mesonet and the Kentucky Climate Center at Western Kentucky University.
Since the Mesonet’s first station at the WKU farm in Warren County became operational in May 2007, 35 stations have been installed toward a goal of 100 stations statewide. Mesonet technicians hope to have 10 more stations (45 total) operational by the end of 2009, Dr. Foster said.
The Mesonet stations collect real-time weather and climate data on temperature, precipitation, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and direction. Data is packaged into observations and transmitted to the Kentucky Climate Center at WKU every five minutes, 24 hours per day, throughout the year and is available online at www.kymesonet.org.
The 50th site license agreement is with the Marion County Board of Education with support from the Marion County Fiscal Court.
“Local officials in Marion County were among the first to contact us seeking a Mesonet station,” Dr. Foster said.
“It took us nearly three years to find a high-quality site that will also meet local needs. After a formal presentation, the board of education approved the site to be located near an elementary school and the fiscal court agreed to assist with local site preparation. The outcome reflected a dedicated effort among all parties working for the good of the community, and is a model of how we strive to build local partnerships throughout the state to best meet the needs of the project and to be sensitive to local needs.”
As plans for expanding the network have progressed, the Mesonet has partnered with universities, city and county governments, school districts, government organizations, nonprofit groups, businesses, private landowners and others for site locations.
“When we reach the statewide goal, the build-out phase of the project will be complete, and that’s when it gets exciting because we can then leverage the Mesonet infrastructure to create a wide range of opportunities,” Dr. Foster said. “We feel the network will become a magnet for investment in research and value-added services for the state.”
The Mesonet supports a variety of needs across Kentucky in agriculture, education, emergency management, energy, engineering and construction, recreation, transportation, water supply management and weather forecasting.
“We’ve been excited in working with our partners at the National Weather Service forecast offices in Kentucky and have built a good working relationship with them,” Dr. Foster said.
The National Weather Service is utilizing Mesonet data for weather forecasts and in severe weather situations and has assisted in identifying site locations and publicizing the project.
“Media outlets in the Bowling Green area and across the state have been very receptive and excited about the opportunity to use the Kentucky Mesonet to help them do their jobs better,” Dr. Foster said.
Rugged terrain, dense forest cover, and limited cellular communications availability have slowed site selections in some areas where viable, high-quality locations for environmental monitoring are particularly difficult to identify, Dr. Foster said.
“We’re committed to making the Kentucky Mesonet a gold star network in terms of the quality and reliability of the data,” he said.
But as the network and public awareness grow, the search for new sites has gotten easier, Dr. Foster said.
“When we started this project, we could talk to people about the idea and the concept, but now we have a network and concrete data to show them,” he said. “As people recognize the value of the infrastructure we’re putting in place statewide, they can better see that the investment is worthwhile at the local level, and they want to be part of the network.”
About the Kentucky Mesonet: Since the Mesonet’s first station at the WKU farm in Warren County became operational in May 2007, 35 stations have been installed and plans for expanding the network are progressing.
Stations are located in Adair, Allen, Barren, Breathitt, Bullitt, Caldwell, Calloway, Carroll, Casey, Christian, Clark, Crittenden, Cumberland, Fayette, Franklin, Grayson, Hardin, Hopkins, Jackson, Johnson, Knox, Lincoln, Logan, Madison, Marshall, Mason, McLean, Mercer, Morgan, Ohio, Owen, Rowan, Taylor, Union and Warren counties.
Additional site installations are progressing in Boone, Breckinridge, Campbell, Fulton, Graves, Harrison, Henderson, Lewis, Metcalfe and Owsley counties. Site license agreements have been reached in Clinton, Nicholas, Marion, Muhlenberg and Trigg counties. Negotiations are under way in hopes of securing sites in about 30 other counties, including Bell, Boyd, Harlan, Knott, McCreary, Nelson, Pendleton, Pike and Todd.
State Climatologist Stuart Foster is director of the Kentucky Mesonet and the Kentucky Climate Center. Dr. Rezaul Mahmood, associate professor of Geography and Geology, is associate director of the Kentucky Mesonet and the Kentucky Climate Center. The Kentucky Mesonet staff includes meteorologists and staff with expertise in instrumentation, information technology, quality assurance, and education outreach. The Kentucky Mesonet also provides opportunities for WKU student employees and interns to work side-by-side with professional staff.
Initial funding for the project was secured by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell through a $2.9 million federal appropriation for the Kentucky Climate Center, part of WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program in the Ogden College of Science and Engineering.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu and at http://wkunews.wordpress.com/. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Stuart Foster at (270) 745-5983.
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