South Alabama Mesonet gets $3 million NOAA grant, plans improvement

MOBILE, Ala. ( WKRG ) — It takes a lot of technology to track dynamic Gulf Coast weather. South Alabama Mesonet weather stations help forecasters to warn us, scientists to study changing weather patterns, and so much more.

“The fire station in Bay Minette, again they really wanted a station,” said Dr. Sytske Kimball, the director of the South Alabama Mesonet network. “They have it on their property now, and they use it to monitor fire weather conditions.”

Soon, a $3-million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association will help University of South Alabama researchers to strengthen this effort with an upgrade to existing weather stations in 12 counties and add 20 more.

The expanded system will serve 28 Alabama Counties, three Mississippi counties, and one Northwest Florida county.

Kimball said, “A few things we’re really going to focus on is getting good multiple-level temperature observations so we can observe temperature inversions. And as you know, those are very important for farmers to decide whether they can apply pesticides or not.”

Weather stations will include security cameras to protect them from mischief, too. “Golf balls. One time somebody hit a golf ball or threw a golf ball at the solar panel,” said Kimball. Those golf balls are just one of many instances across the network.

The grant will also fund more staff. Kimball said, “We’re looking for a manager and we’re looking for a field technician and for an I.T. person to develop our website and to really expand the tools and products that we offer on the website.”

The South Alabama Mesonet network does more than just provide valuable information to businesses and organizations. It’s an educational experience for these students, and it prepares them for careers in meteorology. “It has definitely helped a lot in instrumentation because the whole point of the class is getting to learn these instruments right behind me,” said Hannah Fink, a USA student and the lead technician for the South Alabama Mesonet network. “We do labs based on each individual instrument itself and then being able to know how these work made the class a lot more of an easier process to understanding the labs.”

K-12 schools are even getting involved. Alba Middle School in Bayou La Batre is already using the data, and Castleberry Junior High School joins in this year. “The students there are eager to learn about our instruments and what they do, so we’re going to be working with them throughout the school year, making a template on how we can bring this into classrooms for younger kids,” said Fink.

Growing the Gulf Coast by expanding the South Alabama Mesonet to teach, research, and forecast for even more Alabamians.

If you would like to sponsor one of the stations or have a question about the network, you can email the South Alabama Mesonet team at mesonet@southalabama.edu.

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