A new public climatology portal lets New Yorkers compare current weather with a decade of observations from the state's Mesonet network, the University at Albany and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced. The tool is meant to help emergency managers, forecasters and researchers put heat, flooding, snowfall and other events in historical context.
The network collects readings every five minutes at stations across New York. More than 90 of its sites have now accumulated at least 10 years of observations, and the system has 127 stations in all, according to the state's announcement. The portal draws on that record; it does not yet represent a 30-year climate baseline.
How the measurements can be used
Mesonet stations measure temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, air pressure, precipitation, solar radiation, snow depth, and soil temperature and moisture. Cameras also capture current conditions. The new site can compare readings with longer-term averages, show variation across days and seasons and place past extreme events beside more recent ones.
The observations already feed weather models and decision tools used by the National Weather Service, transportation agencies and emergency managers. The state Weather Risk Communication Center, a partnership between the University at Albany and the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, also uses weather intelligence to support public agencies.
The state said comparisons over time can help decision-makers judge how unusual an event is and prepare for severe weather. The decade of data is an early stage of a 30-year effort to understand how New York's climate is changing; conclusions about a long-term trend should not be inferred from a single storm or short stretch of readings.
The first standard station, at Hudson Crossing Park in Schuylerville, marked its 10th anniversary last August. More than 90 stations have since passed that milestone, giving the portal broader geographic coverage than a single local weather record.
State support and public access
The Mesonet's operations received $2 million in state funding this year, the governor's office said. That support is for the operating network, while the announcement did not give a separate price for building or maintaining the new portal.
University at Albany researchers operate the system, which was developed after Superstorm Sandy. Officials said its real-time products and dashboards remain available to the public alongside the new climatology website.
Hochul framed the portal as a way to prepare for extreme weather, while state emergency-management Commissioner Terry O'Leary said the center and Mesonet data can inform decisions during future events. The announcement also described possible uses for wind and solar power forecasting; it did not claim the portal itself has produced a measured change in generation.
The public can use the new climatology site to examine averages and past variability, while agencies continue to receive the network's frequent live observations for forecasting and response.
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