---
title: "Campus Micronet Expanding to Provide Weather, Environmental Alerts"
date: 2023-07-12T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/campus-micronet-expanding-to-provide-weather-environmental-alerts"
section: Articles
---
# Campus Micronet Expanding to Provide Weather, Environmental Alerts

*July 12, 2023* — by [Emily C. Nunez](/author/emily-c-nunez)


> 10 Stations Will Soon Be Online to Provide Precise Data

*IMG 6620 1920x1080 — In May, the Mesoterps group installed a weather station atop the A.V. Williams Building. From left: Megan Brown, Ainsley Giles, Maria Nikolaitchik, Timothy Canty, Nichola Maynard and Logan Nocket.*

If you want to know the current temperature at the University of Maryland, you may need to get a little more specific: On one recent Wednesday afternoon, it was 75.6 degrees outside of the Atlantic Building, but a balmier 77.3 degrees at the A.V. Williams Building. The UMD Golf Course, with its ample grass and open space, was cooler than either.

Students in the [Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science](https://aosc.umd.edu) (AOSC) made these hyperlocal weather reports possible by installing and managing a [micronet](https://weather.umd.edu/wordpress/micronet/)—a small-scale network of weather sensors—across UMD’s campus. The project is funded by the department; the [Maryland and Delaware Climate Change Education, Assessment and Research program (MADE-CLEAR)](https://madeclear.org/about/); and a gift from Adjunct Professor Robert Brammer M.A. ’70, Ph.D. ’72.

Three weather stations provide minute-by-minute updates on the temperature, wind speed, pressure, dew point and rain rate. Students plan to install seven more stations across campus in the near future and perhaps even allow subscribers to receive alerts about heavy rainfall or high winds—like a [powerful storm](https://aosc.umd.edu/news/looking-back-storm-july-12th-2022) that clamored across campus one year ago today. With [peak wind speeds](https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/07/13/maryland-storm-olney-collegepark-damage/) of 80 to 90 mph, it left a trail of uprooted trees and power outages (but no injuries) in its wake.  
  
“We know that bad weather hits campus, whether it’s tornadoes or microbursts or snow,” said Associate Professor Timothy Canty, faculty lead of the micronet project. “Having this information—and having so many stations in such a small area—provides a much more detailed look at what’s going on.”


*closeup of hands holding phone and taking notes in notebook — While installing the newest weather station, students recorded several key measurements: "We need geospatial location so people know where our station is located precisely, we need elevation to calculate mean surface level pressure and we need the direction of north in order to properly calibrate the anemometer," which measures wind speed and direction, explained Maria Nikolaitchik.*




**Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)


**Tags:** [Atmospheric and Oceanic Science](https://today.umd.edu/topic/atmospheric-and-oceanic-science), [Student Experience](https://today.umd.edu/topic/student-experience)


**Units:** [College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-computer-mathematical-and-natural-sciences)