The South Alabama Mesonet has expanded into the Montgomery area, opening its first station there with a ribbon cutting at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama. The new site is meant to sharpen hyperlocal weather observations across central Alabama.
The station collects real-time, ground-level data on temperature, humidity and rainfall, giving communities, industries and emergency planners information they can use to make better decisions. For farmers, that can mean tracking irrigation schedules and deciding when to apply fertilizer or pesticides, especially when inversions affect how materials move through the air.
The Montgomery-area site sits in a place where the network says nothing interferes with readings within more than 200 yards of the tower. It includes a 35-foot aluminum tower and joins a system that now operates 26 stations, with 22 in south Alabama counties and four more in Mississippi and Florida.
The expansion is backed by the University of South Alabama with a $3 million award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and U.S. Sen. Katie Britt was credited with helping secure the funding. Scott Posey said Hyundai’s role fit a broader mission of improving quality of life and resilience in the communities where the company’s team members live.
The new station is part of a larger push to reach 46 stations by the end of the grant cycle. Austin Clark said the long-term plan is one station in each of Alabama’s 20 Black Belt counties, a move that answers farmers’ calls for more precise weather data and reflects how quickly local conditions can shift from one place to the next.
