When it comes to weather forecasting, the more data, the better.

So says Lans P. Rothfusz, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.

“Meteorologists are only as good as the data they get,” said Rothfusz, reacting Monday to University of Georgia plans to disband a statewide network of weather stations, including ones at Clarks Bridge Park and Gainesville State College in Hall County.

Unless it gets a quick infusion of cash, the Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network will no longer operate after July 1 “due to budget limitations and personnel changes,” according to a notice posted on the network’s website.
The closure is set to begin on April 15.

UGA’s Department of Biological and Agriculture Engineering, headed by Dale Threadgill, manages the program, which began in 1992. In nearly 20 years, the network since has grown to 81 stations.

Each station records rainfall, air and soil temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, solar radiation, soil moisture and barometric pressure, according to the network’s website.

Some stations also record evaporation, water temperature and leaf wetness.

“All these values are read every second and averaged and recorded every 15 minutes on site,” the website says. “This data is sent to computers on the UGA campus via radio, Internet or dedicated phone lines.”

Operating the weather stations costs some $300,000 annually, with funding from the state, contracts and grants.

Threadgill, who started the network with Gerrit Hoogenboom, an ex-faculty member now with Washington State University, said the network has been used “extremely widely ... and for a very diverse group of people.”

The National Weather Service’s acceptance “of our data tells you the quality control and assurance we have built into this thing,” he said.

“It is not easily done to get NOAA to accept your data,” Threadgill said. “It took some years of running it before we got to the point where we had that credibility with them.”

NOAA refers to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs the National Weather Service.

The weather bureau uses several observation methods to forecast the weather, including the Automated Surface Observing Systems program, a joint effort with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense.

Automated Surface Observing Systems — such as Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport in Gainesville — serve as the nation’s primary surface weather observing network, according to the weather agency.

However, the UGA system “has provided valuable, localized weather information to the National Weather Service and the citizens, businesses and governmental agencies of Georgia,” according to a statement posted by the National Weather Service on its website.

“The loss of this important, state-run network will be a setback to the quality of NWS services.”

Rothfusz said, “I can’t say for sure if (storm) warnings are going to decrease. It just depends on each situation as to what data are necessary.”

For Threadgill, the end of Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network strikes a personal chord.

“I have a vested interest in it myself,” he said. “It’s been free to a majority of users ... (such as) by school teachers in science projects, insurance companies in terms of assessing damage ... and all across agriculture. The list goes on.”