First Alert Weather In-Depth: NYS Mesonet

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – When it comes to weather forecasting it is most important to have good, high quality data available before you even make a forecast. New York State Mesonet does exactly that. This network was developed back in 2014 and has 126 individual weather stations that are located all across the New York State.

It is important to note that this is not your average little plastic backyard weather station. This is a group of super high quality weather instruments that are strategically located all across New York State. So what do the instruments measure? The answer is just about anything – including temperature at different levels, barometric pressure, precipitation, soil temperature, incoming solar radiation and of course snow depth. Now each station also has a camera and that comes in handy to not only view the weather, but also to see a ruler at the site for measuring snowfall.

That recorded data can be displayed in many different ways. This includes individual weather parameters like precipitation which can be shown on a chart or that rainfall can be displayed on a New York State map. See the high quality weather data here. You can click on individual stations or plot the weather data for all of New York State.

Nothing like some good weather “stuff” as we eventually head into the winter season.