Benefits and Beneficiaries of the Oklahoma Mesonet: A Multisectoral Ripple Effect Analysis

TLDR: The Oklahoma Mesonet (OMS) as mentioned in this paper is the state's automated mesoscale weather station network, which provides public services to foster weather preparedness, education and public safety, while also supporting decision-making in agricultural production and wildland fire management.

Abstract: Since the Oklahoma Mesonet (the state’s automated mesoscale weather station network) was established in 1994, it has served a number of diverse groups and provided public services to foster weather preparedness, education, and public safety, while also supporting decision-making in agricultural production and wildland fire management.With 121 monitoring stations across the state, the Oklahoma Mesonet has developed an array of technologies to observe a variety of atmospheric and soil variables in 5- to 30-min intervals. These consistent observations have been especially critical for predicting and preparing for extreme weather events like droughts, floods, ice storms, and severe convective storms as well as for development of value-added tools. The tools, outreach programs, and mesoscale data have been widely utilized by the general public, state decision-makers, public safety officials, K–12 community, agricultural sector, and researchers, thus generating wide societal and economic benefits to man...