Eskimo Joe

Thanks. I was part of the core group that developed the project back in 2021. I can't wait to get more sites in the ground and have the data flowing in.

For the Mason-Dixon folks: It's official now, the Maryland mesonet is live. Today, the first of 75 towers was "stood up" in Clarksville, MD at a University of Maryland research farm. This was a project that started in April of 2021 and has accelerated from concept to design in a little over two years. The mesonet will serve several areas: public safety, operational meteorology, transportation, agriculture, and climate monitoring. Other goals of the network include K-12 science in the classroom, and energy management (wind/solar data). A couple of key points: The website is now live, you may get a security certificate warning from your web browser, but rest assured the site is safe. http://mesonet.umd.edu/index.html Website design and content will continue to emerge over the coming months as more data and visualizations are developed. The data from the Clarksville location is not visible on the website just yet. There will be a short quality control period before data is accepted and published online. Hopefully this will only be a few days to a week. Internal testing was better than expected, which is a good sign. All data from the mesonet will be available to the public. As stations are added they will appear on the site once the previously mentioned control period is concluded. The National Weather Service and Mid Atlantic River Forecast Center will receive the data via their MADIS ingestion portal. You can read more about that here: https://madis.ncep.noaa.gov/ Land use agreements for nine other sites have been formalized. Site work will be conducted over the next two months to get these sites operational before the real meat of winter sets in. If we are lucky, we could have the first set of sites coming online every 10 - 14 calendar days. This is all contingent on weather. During the winter, the team will continue to scout new sites, sign new land use agreements, and develop a work plan for rapid deployment of technology into the field in CY 2024. This is a big deal for the state. Long recognized data gaps will be closed and actionable information will be readily available 24/7/365.

It's official now, the Maryland mesonet is live. Today, the first of 75 towers was "stood up" in Clarksville, MD at a University of Maryland research farm. This was a project that started in April of 2021 and has accelerated from concept to design in a little over two years. The mesonet will serve several areas: public safety, operational meteorology, transportation, agriculture, and climate monitoring. Other goals of the network include K-12 science in the classroom, and energy management (wind/solar data). A couple of key points: The website is now live, you may get a security certificate warning from your web browser, but rest assured the site is safe. http://mesonet.umd.edu/index.html Website design and content will continue to emerge over the coming months as more data and visualizations are developed. The data from the Clarksville location is not visible on the website just yet. There will be a short quality control period before data is accepted and published online. Hopefully this will only be a few days to a week. Internal testing was better than expected, which is a good sign. All data from the mesonet will be available to the public. As stations are added they will appear on the site once the previously mentioned control period is concluded. The National Weather Service and Mid Atlantic River Forecast Center will receive the data via their MADIS ingestion portal. You can read more about that here: https://madis.ncep.noaa.gov/ Land use agreements for nine other sites have been formalized. Site work will be conducted over the next two months to get these sites operational before the real meat of winter sets in. If we are lucky, we could have the first set of sites coming online every 10 - 14 calendar days. This is all contingent on weather. During the winter, the team will continue to scout new sites, sign new land use agreements, and develop a work plan for rapid deployment of technology into the field in CY 2024. This is a big deal for the state. Long recognized data gaps will be closed and actionable information will be readily available 24/7/365.

I was finishing grad school at Millersville at the time. It was a wonderful event.

Do it. Give in to your snow weenie.

Maybe a midnight high for Monday, then we just start drifting colder?

Yea outside the period right around Christmas it was a dead rather winter.

Good stuff. Thanks for the insight.

I've been quietly impressed at how the GFS has been pacing or even laying the Euro of late.

Catoctin Mt. is smoking from the cooler air moving in.

^my birthday!

Awesome. I'm hoping we don't get some big 18"+ event this year. I don't want to spend that time in a windowless operations center while nothing happens. I'd rather we get smaller 6" - 10" events.

Getting 2" - 4" areawide from a Clipper on Christmas Eve that resets the pattern for an epic January and February would be amazing.

^Sign me up. Near normal to slightly below normal temps? Outstanding.

Is that because it help build a western ridge?

Maybe our first legit areawide freeze later next week?

I genuinely appreciate the insight and perspective from posters like you, @WxUSAF, and @brooklynwx99. When I see you post, I get interested.

I'm starting to see forecasts calling for a +NAO and largely stable polar vortex this winter. We already have a hard time getting snow in these parts as it is.

Reading the main ENSO thread is depressing. Do we actually have a shot at a somewhat normal snowfall winter, or are we going to waste another El Nino?

Just need it dry until 3pm on Monday.

A bit late to the party, but the 00z Canadian implied some TV Snow™ for western Maryland to kick off November.

We do heat well here.

Naw. Details next week. Cool stuff happening!

That winter was amazing. Was growing up in Philly and it just snowed. We got 2" - 4" events regularly.