Throughout the fall semester, I made it a point to attend a number of talks from guest speakers and off-campus lecturers. I attended some fascinating lectures, including an incredible discussion about environmental justice with Dr. Jayson Porter and a talk on the current state of nuclear power with Dr. Rajesh Miangi. Most recently, I attended James Hyde's lecture on weather measurement, its history, and the future of instrumentation.
The talk was held on December 10th in the Edward St. John Teaching and Learning Center, from 4:30 to 5:30, and was titled "How We Measure The Weather: A Brief History And Where We’re Going Next". James Hyde, the lecturer, is a member of UMD's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, as well as the manager of the Mesonet.
He began the talk with a focus on the creation of weather instrumentation — from the first rain gauges in 3rd century India to the creation of hair-based hygrometers in the 1600s and, eventually, their spread into everyday life with the invention of the telegram. Although the tools became more refined over time, the basic principles behind them have remained the same until very recently.
Recent developments, however, have pushed sensors into being almost entirely digital measures of pressure, humidity, and any other metric that you can imagine. Professor Hyde described some of the issues with the change; a loss of human touch, reduction of data to its most important elements, and a lack of standard of care for sensor stations. In particular, he noted the common presence of temperature gauges placed next to airports, where the heat from the tarmac can influence readings, and limited assessment of how valid measurements from a given station really are. By comparison, the Maryland Mesonet, a program meant to operate high-quality and rapid-sampling collection systems in Maryland, could help prevent some of these issues. Mesonet data includes a wide range of metrics, compared to many sensor stations' limited scope, including dewpoint, soil temperature/moisture, and snow depth. With a higher level of maintenance behind it, and a scientifically rigorous set of standards for measurements, the Mesonet promises to improve emergency preparedness and improve regional forecasts.
Professor Hyde's main point — that the current lack of standards for weather instrumentation hurts forecasting data — was very convincing. He was able to provide specific examples of sensor systems that fail to keep track of their data properly, including ones roadside, in backyards, and at the BWI and Dulles airports. In addition, the switch to digital sensors has reduced in many cases the number of metrics being taken down, with a bigger focus on high temperature, low temperature, and rainfall. Although these metrics are obviously valuable, the range of data that the Mesonet offers would increase the utility of the sensor systems. In addition, as a long-time resident of Maryland, there have been several severe weather events that would definitely have benefitted from higher levels of monitoring and forecast. We've had several historic floods in the Columbia area, severe flooding around DC and Silver Spring, and over the summer had a state of emergency in Garrett County due to heavy flooding. Any methods that can be implemented to help notify people in advance and reduce the danger of these events would be very positive, especially as they look to become more of an issue due to the impacts of climate change. I do think that one of the examples that he pulled out in particular was somewhat weak, where he described the possibility of using the Mesonet to prevent the no-snow 'snow delay' that several public schools in Maryland had earlier this semester. Although this would be a generally useful tool, preventing wasted academic time, the chances of better metrics being able to prevent those occurrences are lower than were emphasized. Decisions like that are usually made by county administration, with the primary focus of making sure that students are safe. Even if better metrics could show that snow was unlikely to occur, the associated issues like icy roads and difficulty with transport would still be on the table. Regardless, I thought that Professor Hyde made a strong case for the importance of high-standard, high-precision instrumentation that would be able to provide important information to both decision-makers and residents alike.