It’s an old joke that if you don’t like the weather in Texas, just wait a few minutes and it’ll change. Of course, if you want accurate weather information, the technology at your fingertips has to change that quickly as well.
Texas Tech University’s West Texas Mesonet launched its new app on Thursday (March 23), available to download for free in the App Store. The app’s data is updated every five minutes from the weather stations in the mesonet’s extensive coverage area.
“The app provides precise weather and agricultural information right to your phone from more than 100 mesonet sites across West Texas, eastern New Mexico and southwest Colorado,” said Wes Burgett, operations manager for the West Texas Mesonet. “It provides current data along with 24-hour plots. The app also provides daily and weekly weather forecasts from the National Weather Service.”
The app gives users easy access to information on temperature, wind speed, wind direction, wind gusts, pressure, dew point, humidity and precipitation in plain language, along with weather maps based on the iPhone or iPad’s GPS location.
The app can be found here or by searching “West Texas Mesonet” in the App Store.
About the West Texas Mesonet
The West Texas Mesonet is an independent project collaborating with the atmospheric science group and the National Wind Institute at Texas Tech. Its first station came online at Reese Center in June 2000. Since then, the network has grown to 103 mesonet stations and seven boundary layer SODAR units covering 69 counties in the Texas Panhandle, South Plains, Rolling Plains, Permian Basin, Trans Pecos, far West Texas, Concho Valley, Big Country, Edwards Plateau, Hill Country, southwest Colorado and eastern New Mexico. Its mission is to provide accurate meteorological data for distribution to a variety of facets in the region, including operational meteorology, agriculture and farming, research and media.
(Press release from Texas Tech University)
