Inside look at NYS Mesonet following severe storms

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) –  The New York State Mesonet is the most sophisticated statewide weather monitoring system in the nation and Tuesday’s severe storms put it to the test. NEWS10 got a close look at the network’s high-tech equipment and the Capital Region data that experts said stood out the most.

The first Mesonet stations were installed in 2015. Now, there are 127 across the state. Director of the New York State Weather Risk Communication Center Nick Bassill said he was in disbelief Tuesday by what he saw recorded for the first time in the network’s history.

“Yesterday with the storms in Glens Falls there was an 87 MPH wind gust, and that is the highest ever observed in the history of New York State Mesonet, for all of those stations. The previous high was about 80 mph,” said Bassill.

The ultrasonic wind sensors they use are very accurate because they are not reliant on the wind being strong for a long time. He said one of the constant challenges they face is how to get information out that is accurate and timely. 

“Because when you have one of those really complex weather events where you want to talk about the heat, you want to talk of the wind, you want to talk about possible tornadoes, you want to talk about what happened yesterday, you want to talk about everything. It’s hard to be very detailed and concise at the same time,” said Bassill.

Time lapse video showed the wind damage. Edinburgh, in Saratoga County, clocked 73 MPH wind speeds. 

“When we see a big thunderstorm and a big wind report, we often will go to the camera because we want to see is there anything that corroborates that? And we saw things like a shed getting blown over, or a tree getting blown over. That certainly gives you some confidence in really strong wind gusts happening there,” said Bassill.

He said across the county, in Schuylerville, the area also caught their attention when 1.11 inches of rain fell in the matter of 15 minutes.

Bassill said the conditions were right for widespread storm damage with rainfall from the previous week saturating the ground. He said when they see extreme weather in one category it is frequently correlated with extremes in another.

“If it’s really hot and humid – like it’s been here in the Albany area the last couple days, where we’ve had heat indices over 100° a couple of days in a row – that is a condition that is also very good at spawning thunderstorms because it’s really hot, really humid. Thunderstorms love that,” said Bassill.

On Thursday, Bassill will be in D.C. at the FEMA headquarters to discuss how they organize and share data across multiple agencies.