"It's like looking out the window every five minutes at 125 places around the state"
Maybe you've heard about the NYS Mesonet, the new network of weather stations the state is building around New York (and headquartered at UAlbany) with the aim of providing better, more detailed local observations and forecasts. Over at The Verge, Chris Pomorski has a detailed look at what the new weather system involves, and frames it with the story of the Prattsville flooding during Irene. [The Verge]
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Better forecasts.. yeah, I'll believe it when I see it. And why do they have to use Cuomo and his droning voice to go over the details on the promo video. (Rhetorical question folks. We all know why...)
... said ace on Nov 3, 2016 at 1:50 PM | link
I still wonder what was that "Type B situation" at Gilboa dam the weather radio warned about during Irene flood. I though public announcements should be understood by the public, no?
... said Lu on Nov 4, 2016 at 12:39 AM | link
My understanding of the Mesonet is that it will only provide localized value, more or less in real time, by helping to identify those data points that can meaningfully show how a storm is evolving. In some instances, this may provide actionable information to help first responders and emergency managers, in other cases, it will generate data that can be used for predictive modeling in the future. Given the fact that most states aren’t making the investment, NYS will be out of luck in seeing any meaningful information by our neighbors to help out Western NY in real time, but our own internal network will help to inform localized data, so for instance, as a storm moves into Western NY, we may be able to generate real time data (and lean on historic data collected by the Mesonet) to provide some actionable information for response efforts as the storm moves into the Southern Tier or Capital Region. At the end of the day, this will take time and money to see a truly predictive network that can provide wholesale actionable information in real time for all corners of the state—but you have to start somewhere. My fear is that Cuomo has over sold the benefits too early, and his abrasive management style (originally, when the concept was floated, he was the butt of all jokes by the National Weather Service, since he threw them under the bus by blaming hampered response efforts on poor data by the NWS; additionally, it appeared that the Mesonet would be an internal state system independent of the NWS—smartly, he backed off of that premise and is fusing this state asset alongside NWS capabilities—chiefly the human element) may lead folks to doubt the efforts, which will take time to ripen.
... said Rich on Nov 4, 2016 at 9:39 AM | link
There is a lot going on besides NWS in terms of weather.
For example, there is a weather underground network - which naturally gravitate towards inhabited areas, but can provide a great deal of information. Blitzortung network also provides useful information - less universal, maybe.
In terms of longer range monitoring, NWS is using radars..
I can see use for dense of stations in the areas where localized weather maybe an issue - like lake effect in Buffalo - but I doubt CuomoWeather will do much good in the grand scheme of things.
... said Mike on Nov 4, 2016 at 11:13 AM | link