Sponsors (2)
The bill expands and funds mesonet and surface-observation capacity to materially improve forecasts, warnings, and localized weather data—especially benefiting public safety, agriculture, and transportation—while requiring modest recurring federal spending and imposing participation costs and data-use concerns for some private and academic contributors.
Local governments, hospitals, and the public will receive denser, higher-quality weather observations that enable better nowcasts, warnings, and hyper-local forecasts, improving public safety during severe weather.
State, Tribal, academic, and private partners — especially under-resourced and rural areas — will get federal funding and grants (FY2025–FY2029) to build and sustain mesonet monitoring capacity, increasing coverage in gaps and supporting long-term operations.
Surface-transportation operators and roadway users will gain real-time road weather and surface-condition data to improve traveler safety and reduce weather-related travel disruptions.
Taxpayers will face increased federal spending of roughly $50M–$70M annually through FY2029 to implement and expand the program.
Small private data providers and some nonprofits may incur new costs or face contractual obligations (e.g., data-quality standards, multi-year maintenance) that could deter participation or place burdens on limited-resources partners.
Increased federal coordination and data acquisition could raise concerns about data access, privacy, or commercial-use terms for private and academic contributors.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires NOAA to maintain and expand a National Mesonet Program that acquires and integrates denser, diverse environmental observations to improve forecasts, warnings, and drought/fire monitoring.
Introduced February 18, 2025 by Brian Emanuel Schatz · Last progress February 18, 2025
Requires NOAA to run and expand a National Mesonet Program that collects denser and more diverse environmental observations (especially from commercial, academic, and non-Federal sources) to improve weather, drought, fire, and water forecasting. The program must grow observation density and sensor types each year, make agreements with outside networks, coordinate with satellite data, acquire soil moisture and roadway environmental data, and meet data-quality and cost-effectiveness standards to support nowcasts, warnings, hyper-local forecasts, and numerical weather prediction.