Kentucky Mesonet Adding Soil Monitoring At Several Sites

May 20, 2008

Bowling Green, Ky. - The Kentucky Mesonet will add soil monitoring capabilities at several sites thanks to a donation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The agency is providing 20 soil probes, valued at $8,000 to $10,000, that will enable the Mesonet to begin soil moisture and soil temperature monitoring later this year, according to Mesonet director Stuart Foster.

“We’re really excited and happy this project is ongoing and we’re glad to be a partner on it,” said Bill Craddock, state soil scientist with the USDA NRCS in Lexington.

Soil moisture and temperature data will be beneficial for farmers and for students across Kentucky, Craddock said.

“We lack data on water tables in Kentucky,” he said. “We’re excited to get this water table information as well as soil data.”

Officials from the NRCS will help Mesonet employees determine and select the best sites to receive the soil monitoring probes, Craddock 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.

Seven sites across the state – Adair, Calloway, Casey, Logan, Ohio, Rowan and Warren -- are in operation and provide data on temperature, precipitation, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and direction. The information is available online at www.kymesonet.org.

Mesonet technicians completed installation of the Adair County station last week and will install a station this week at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Bullitt County.

Installations are planned in Christian, Lincoln, Carroll, Fayette, Grayson and LaRue counties. Site license agreements also have been reached for Barren and Breathitt counties.

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.
               
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 Kentucky Mesonet at (270) 745-4567 or Stuart Foster at (270) 745-5983.