University of Hawai‘i seeks additional funding to operate weather stations throughout state

The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa is partnering with the state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources to improve flood and wildfire early warning systems by installing 100 weather monitoring stations across the main Hawaiian Islands.

The stations are part of the Hawaiʻi Mesonet program. The 61st weather station was put in in December. It is located next to a Honolulu Board of Water Supply reservoir. The system is already providing real-time data that is also available to the public through an easy-access web interface, according to a press release from the University of Hawai‘i.

The remaining 39 stations will be deployed over the next two years. Stations are currently collecting data from Hawai‘i Island, Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, Maui and Moloka‘i.

Click here to view the stations and their data.

“It’s about being able to be as prepared as possible, especially when you consider recent events like the devastating Los Angeles wildfires and the terrible Lāhaina fire here at home,” said project lead Tom Giambelluca, a long-time professor in the Geography and Environment Department, and former director of the UH Water Resources Research Center. “For instance, the system that is constantly collecting data on soil moisture can tell us in real-time if an area is highly susceptible to fires or flooding. This same data collected over time can be used by farmers and ranchers.”

The network requires approximately $600,000 annually for operations, maintenance and data management, according to the university press release. Currently, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s National Mesonet Program covers 40% of the cost.

The program is seeking additional state funding from the legislature for the Department of Land and Natural Resources Commission on Water Resource Management to support the UH program.

The data collected from the stations can also be used for water resource management, agriculture, ranching, ecosystem and cultural resource protection and more.

Hawaiʻi State Rep. Linda Ichiyama supports the weather stations.

“The Hawaiʻi Mesonet represents a critical investment in the safety, resilience and sustainability of our island communities,” said Ichiyama. “This advanced weather monitoring system will empower us to make informed decisions in the face of increasingly severe weather events and climate challenges, like we are seeing in Los Angeles now. Supporting this initiative ensures that Hawaiʻi is better equipped to protect our communities, manage our natural resources, and plan for a more resilient future.”

Each station is equipped with cutting-edge sensors that measure rainfall, air temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, air pressure, solar radiation and soil conditions at multiple depths. Sensors scan every second, recording averages and statistics every five minutes.

Data is transmitted every 15 minutes, ensuring real-time insights for weather forecasting, emergency management, water resource planning and more. The data captured by the Hawaiʻi Mesonet is publicly available on the UH Hawaiʻi Climate Data Portal.

“The network spans the whole archipelago, so we are able to get information in places that previously we had no access to,” said Ryan Longman, UH Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center consortium program director. “We can monitor and analyze weather phenomena such as extreme winds and heavy rainfall events, with much more accuracy now than we had in the past.

“We are also using the data to create climate maps that can give us high resolution information anywhere and those maps are already being used by a range of stakeholders. Ranchers, resource managers, water managers are all using those maps to get information on the ground at site specific locations even in places where a mesonet station doesn’t exist.”

The Hawaiʻi Mesonet has secured more than $1.5 million in funding for equipment from the National Science Foundation, with additional contributions from the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and state funding to the DLNR Hawaiʻi Commission on Water Resources Management.

Installation costs are supported by WRRC and the UH Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship.

For more information about the Hawaiʻi Mesonet, click here.