May 22, 2009
Bowling
Green, Ky. - U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell will officially launch the Kentucky Mesonet network during a Tuesday ceremony in Grayson County.
Sen. McConnell, R-Ky., will join Western Kentucky University President Gary Ransdell, Grayson County School Superintendent Barry Anderson, John Gordon of the National Weather Service and Mesonet Director Stuart Foster at 9:30 a.m. (CT) at the Grayson County Mesonet site. The site is adjacent to Lawler Elementary School and Grayson County High School off of U.S. 62 in Leitchfield.
The Kentucky Mesonet is a statewide weather and climate monitoring network collecting real-time weather and climate data on temperature, precipitation, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and direction. Data is packaged into observations every five minutes and transmitted to the Kentucky Climate Center at WKU every 15 minutes, 24 hours per day, throughout the year and is available online at www.kymesonet.org.
Currently there are 25 Mesonet sites operational and plans call for construction of 100 stations to be located throughout the Commonwealth. The environmental monitoring network supports a variety of products to serve needs across Kentucky, including agriculture, education, energy, emergency management, engineering and construction, recreation, transportation, water supply management and weather forecasting.
Initial funding for the project was secured by Sen. McConnell through a series of federal appropriations totaling $2.9 million for the Kentucky Climate Center, part of WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program in the Ogden College of Science and Engineering.
The Mesonet’s first station at the WKU farm in Warren County became operational in May 2007. The Mesonet has partnered with universities, school districts, businesses, farmers and others for site locations. The National Weather Service and media outlets are utilizing the Mesonet data for weather forecasts and reports.
Directions to the Grayson County Mesonet site:
From Ky. 259 south of Leitchfield, take U.S. 62 west approximately two miles. Continue past the entrance to Lawler Elementary School and turn on the next left. The Mesonet site will be on the right.
More WKU news is available at http://www.wku.edu/news/index.html and at http://wkunews.wordpress.com/.
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