January 22, 2008
Bowling
Green, Ky. - The Kentucky Mesonet has launched a new website that will make weather and climate data easier to access.
The new www.kymesonet.org displays the most current data available from across the commonwealth. Visitors to the website will access data directly on the homepage. A map will feature data (temperature, precipitation, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and direction) from Mesonet reporting stations. The page also will feature a daily weather summary from the stations.
“Our goal is to help users find the weather and climate information they need. Interactive graphical displays that are easy to navigate allow users to see data and then to explore it in more detail,” said Stuart Foster, director of the Mesonet and the Kentucky Climate Center at Western Kentucky University. “We will be making further enhancements to the site throughout the year.”
The website’s functionality was designed and implemented by the project’s IT staff and student employees, who consulted on graphical design elements with Hitcents, a web design and technology company located in WKU’s Center for Research and Development.
“Hitcents provided the look and we added the feel,” Foster said.
The Mesonet’s goal is to develop a statewide automated environmental monitoring network of approximately 100 stations to collect real-time weather and climate observations. Initial funding for the project was secured by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell through a $1.5 million federal earmark for the Kentucky Climate Center, part of WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program in the Ogden College of Science and Engineering.
Equipment has been installed at six sites thus far across Kentucky. The newest stations are located at the Ohio County Park near Hartford and near Walnut Hill Elementary School near Pricetown in Casey County.
Other stations are located at WKU’s farm, near Morehead State University, at Murray State University’s farm and at a nature preserve in Logan County.
The Mesonet has reached site license agreements for three more sites – at Arkema, Inc., property at Carrollton in Carroll County; near the Grayson County High School in Leitchfield; and at the LaRue County Environmental Education and Research Center near Hodgenville. “We worked diligently with local officials and stakeholders at each of these sites, because we’re very particular about finding sites that will benefit the communities where they’re located,” Foster said.
Technicians also will be installing equipment at stations in Bullitt and Fayette counties, while Mesonet officials continue to identify, select and negotiate agreements for sites in other areas statewide.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Stuart Foster at (270) 745-5983.
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