Pennsylvania’s statewide weather-monitoring and alert system will continue for five more years under a $3.5 million contract from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to Penn State.
The Keystone Mesonet brings together observations from more than 200 public weather stations on a single website. Emergency managers, first responders and the public can view current conditions, radar, watches and warnings through the system.
The contract provides $3 million from the commonwealth and $500,000 in Penn State cost sharing. The project began in 2018 as a partnership between Penn State meteorologists and PEMA.
Part of the funding will maintain and expand Penn State’s Pennsylvania Environmental Monitoring Network. Its stations collect readings every minute, including soil moisture, soil temperature, solar radiation and snowfall that are not available from every standard weather network.
Penn State said 48 of its monitoring stations have been installed at Commonwealth campuses, public parks and school district properties, with two more planned by spring. The network is one of nine station networks whose data appear on the Keystone Mesonet map.
The new contract also supports added map layers and weather data, wider public access and efforts to improve severe-weather warning lead times. Penn State researchers said the denser local measurements can help fill gaps between National Weather Service sites.
Emergency managers can receive email alerts that draw on the system’s available data. After a storm, they can examine measurements to understand local impacts and inform future public warnings, according to the university.
The site also provides free weather lessons and teaching materials for K-12 classrooms. Penn State says the five-year funding will keep the network operating while adding information for residents and responders across Pennsylvania.