Kentucky Mesonet survived a threatened state budget cut and is continuing to expand. The Western Kentucky University-based statewide weather and climate monitoring network is adding two new stations.
For a while, Kentucky Mesonet’s state funding of $750,000 was on the chopping block. WKU President Timothy Caboni says it’s a positive step that the funding was restored for Mesonet.
"It continues to provide a remarkably important service, not just to the community here in Bowling Green, but to communities across the state who are interested in using those data for agriculture, for road planning and for other important things in those communities.," said Caboni. "It’s really part of our statewide mission, and we’re glad it was preserved.”
Mesonet’s 71st weather station will be in the town of Dixon in Webster County. It's one of Mesonet's "sponsored" stations, with a portion of the costs of installation and operations covered by Webster County. The 72nd station will be a third Mesonet site in Shelby County.
Kentucky Mesonet collects real-time data on temperature, precipitation, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and wind direction.
