Improving Flood and Agricultural Forecasts Act of 2025

This bill tells NOAA to keep and grow the National Mesonet Program, a national network of local weather and soil stations that feed real‑time data into forecasts. The goal is to make flood, fire, drought, and storm forecasts more accurate and local, improve warnings, and help farmers, drivers, and emergency managers make safer decisions . NOAA must add more kinds of observations each year, bring in data from state, Tribal, university, and private networks, and coordinate with satellite data. It can only buy outside data when it’s cost‑effective and meets strong quality standards. The program also works toward a 30‑minute lead time for severe weather warnings by improving the data that powers forecasts.

Key points

• Who is affected: People nationwide, especially those in remote or underserved areas; farmers and ranchers; drivers; emergency managers; and state, Tribal, university, and private groups that run local weather stations .
• What changes: At least 15% of program funds must go to state, Tribal, private, and academic groups to build or upgrade local station networks if they agree to share data. NOAA can offer technical help, and it must prioritize at least one project in a remote or low‑coverage area. Recipients must show some non‑federal support and keep data quality high for at least five years. An expert advisory committee helps guide data needs and improvements .
• When: The bill sets funding levels from 2025 through 2029, rising from $50 million to $70 million over that period.