NYS Mesonet Weather Monitoring Station
NYS Mesonet Lake Placid Weather Station
The New York State Mesonet, a statewide weather observation network operated by the University at Albany, partnered with the Uihlein Foundation in the spring of 2024 to establish a weather station at Uihlein Farm. This station is the 127th in the university’s statewide network of weather stations. Each station, spaced an average of about 17 miles apart across the state, is equipped with automated sensors that measure air temperature and quality, humidity, wind speed and direction, pressure, precipitation, solar radiation, snow depth and soil information as well as camera images. Data are collected in real time every five minutes, feeding weather prediction models and decision-support tools for users across New York. Online dashboards for each site offer real-time information and regularly updated photographs.
Scientists use Mesonet weather station data to improve forecasting and climate models; farmers can also use it to gauge soil moisture; and renewable energy businesses use it to optimize their equipment. “Unfortunately, New York state will see an increased frequency in extreme weather going forward over the next decade, which means this kind of network is really crucial for monitoring how the weather systems are changing, but also to get real-time weather information to those who need to make decisions,” said Chris Thorncroft, director of the University at Albany’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center. This site is also one of around 20 others that are equipped with tools that measure air quality, which Thorncroft said is an increasingly important metric considering the rampant wildfire smoke much of the Northeastern U.S. – especially the Adirondacks – saw two summers ago as a result of Canadian wildfires.
Photo by Adsit Media Works
The Lake Placid site, at 2,100 feet in elevation, is now the highest Mesonet location in the Adirondacks, with the weather station on the side of Whiteface Mountain now the second highest. The Lake Placid site is one of a smaller set of other Adirondack stations that collect extra information on snow. Lake Placid village now has access to pinpoint-accurate weather data which can prove invaluable to Lake Placid’s year-round sports culture. This will aid forecasts and air quality monitoring for events hosted here such as the Ironman triathlon, the Lake Placid Marathon, the Lake Placid Horseshow, and the many world-class winter sporting events held here annually.
Uihlein Farm was previously the site of another weather station operated by Cornell University from 1972 to 2014. Junhong Wang, a UAlbany researcher and program director of Mesonet, said that the Uihlein Station is unique among other Mesonet stations in that regard, providing valuable historic data for monitoring climate change.
Read press release about the ribbon cutting for the new station here.