UMD-Led Systems Provide Real-Time Weather, Flooding Alerts for Marylanders

University of Maryland researchers are helping to keep residents and businesses in Maryland safe from severe weather and coastal flooding through a pair of projects connected to UMD’s Grand Challenges Grants program, which seeks to launch solutions for society’s most pressing problems.

Called Mesonet and HydroNet, they are supported by a $3 million Grand Challenges Institutional Grant that established the Climate Resilience Network. Data from both systems are transmitted to the National Weather Service in near real-time, and simultaneously available to local and state emergency management personnel. 

Using weather stations in every county, the Maryland Mesonet constantly samples variables like wind speed, air temperature and soil moisture to provide up-to-the minute readings that help meteorologists predict oncoming storms and farmers better understand crop conditions. The UMD-run network is a partnership with the state of Maryland, which launched Mesonet with a $4 million investment. 

The Maryland HydroNet is a network of low-cost, continuous sensors installed on shorelines along the Chesapeake Bay, including flood-plagued downtown Annapolis. Designed to alleviate the problem of “data deserts” on sea levels around the bay, HydroNet can not only record floods as they happen but provide the information scientists need to better forecast both damaging events and long-term trends as sea levels rise globally.