Maryland to Build Automated Weather Station Network – The Southern Maryland Chronicle

The state of Maryland is constructing an automatic community of climate stations to assist with forecasting and emergency alerts.

The state and the College of Maryland will companion to construct a mesonet, which is brief for mesoscale community. The mesonet will characteristic 75 monitoring stations when accomplished, with the primary third in operation by subsequent summer time.

Sumant Nigam, chair of the Division of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science on the college, mentioned the design section is already underway.

“We’re at present within the design section utilizing numerical climate modeling experiments to find out the optimum placement of the towers,” Nigam defined. “Are there places the place climate monitoring would yield better dividends relating to a climate forecast?”

Nigam famous the stations would transmit knowledge to UMD each 5 minutes after which be made accessible to the Nationwide Climate Service and state and county emergency administration.

Every tower will take quite a few measurements, together with barometric stress, temperature, and humidity, but additionally hydrologic measurements, similar to soil moisture. Nigam famous the soil moisture knowledge would assist in excessive rain occasions to find out the place flooding is a better threat.

“As a result of we all know that the soil is saturated, it can not take in any of the incoming rainfall, which can then run off shortly and result in flooding,” Nigam identified. “Figuring out that the soil is saturated prematurely will enable the emergency administration officers to concern a flood warning with better lead time than in any other case.”

The state of Maryland has dedicated 4 million {dollars} to the venture. The community is anticipated to be accomplished across the finish of subsequent 12 months.