A statewide weather station network for Maine
Sean Birkel, Ph.D., Maine’s climatologist and Cooperative Extension team member, introduced the state’s new 26-station weather monitoring network to many farmers and foresters at the state’s Agricultural Trades Show in Augusta.
“The mesonet will fill existing networks and observational gaps and provide high-quality, real-time data for weather-based decision tools for agriculture and forestry,” Birkel explained. “It will follow the best practices of the American Association of State Climatologists to provide top-tier data that will serve as climate records over time.”
Both U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King supported this $3.5 million-plus federal project, administered by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“Mesonet” combines two words – “mesoscale” and “network” – to create a one term for a network of automated weather stations that focuses on measuring smaller-scale weather conditions. Mesonet stations are strategically placed relatively close together to capture detailed local weather, making them able to monitor conditions like thunderstorms, tornadoes, flooding and other significant events.
The first three of the planned and funded 26 weather stations have already been installed on University of Maine properties. The first two were installed in October 2025 at the Blueberry Hill Farm in Jonesboro and Highmoor Farm in Monmouth, both Maine Agricultural & Forest Experimentation Stations (MAFES). The third was installed by years end on the UMaine campus at Orono.
An extensive study is being undertaken including community outreach, private landowner consultations and Farm Bureau meetings, plus schools and colleges, to identify the remaining sites. Deven Roper of UMaine Extension has been hired as the mesonet manager. Birkel noted that she is not only responsible for all weather station installations, assisted by student employees, but also for ongoing maintenance and repair.
“This project will develop a new research-grade mesonet across Maine that will greatly expand beyond existing networks to directly support the weather data and decision-support needs of agricultural producers and foresters,” explained Lily Calderwood, Ph.D., Maine Extension wild blueberry specialist and associate professor of horticulture at UMaine-Orono.
Calderwood was the principal grant writer responsible not only for initiating the application for federal mesonet dollars but also for assembling the three-person team that included Birkel as well as Dr. Philip Fanning, agricultural entomologist at the School of Biology & Ecology at UMaine-Orono.
“Small, medium and large farms, both organic and conventional, will benefit from enhanced management timing information, especially for integrated pest management (IPM) afforded by the mesonet,” Calderwood said. “High-quality data streams from stations with air, surface and subsurface environmental measurements can be utilized by the National Weather Service to validate and improve forecast data products. All weather data generated will be publicly accessible.”
Once the entire mesonet is installed, UMaine Extension will use newsletters and classes to teach stakeholders across the state how to effectively use the newly available information.
Calderwood emphasized that the mesonet would reduce costs for farmers and foresters through reduced inputs and the labor required to complete on-farm tasks.
Measurements will also include air temperature, precipitation, wind, solar radiation, relative humidity, pressure, rain and snow depth, soil temperature and moisture and leaf wetness. The weather stations include 10-meter towers and three-meter tripod configurations. The primary vendor is Campbell Scientific of Logan, Utah.
“In addition to agriculture and forestry stakeholders, the high-quality weather data distributed by Maine’s public land grant university will also benefit state emergency management and transportation,” Calderwood pointed out. “All data will be made available to the National Mesonet Program (NMP) and the National Weather Service, where the array of observations (one or more stations per county) can be utilized to improve local weather forecasting and to also inform products such as the U.S. Drought Monitor.”
Mesonet data will be publicly available through the Maine Climate Office. Data will also be streamed by the Network for Environment & Weather Applications (NEWA) of Cornell University and other ag-related decision tools. Partners include the New York State Mesonet for data management services; other collaborators and partners include UMaine’s College of Earth, Life & Health Sciences, Maine Forest Service, National Weather Service and the American Association of State Climatologists mesonet community.
by Edith Tucker
