POTSDAM -- SUNY Potsdam will host one of the first 19 Mesonet early weather warning detection sites, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office.

The system provides state-of-the-art, real-time weather condition data to support emergency management, research, and condition-dependent industries vital to New York’s economy, such as agriculture and energy production.

It will eventually grow to 125 sites, Cuomo said.

“Extreme weather has impacted communities across our state in recent years, and today we are actively preparing for whatever Mother Nature brings,” Cuomo. “The Mesonet system is part of how our administration is moving forward with future storms in mind, and I am proud to see this important milestone reached. We will continue building New York State back smarter and stronger in order to keep New Yorkers safe.”

Mesonet’s stations provide localized, accurate, and timely data on air, wind, soil, and radiation conditions. Each station houses a suite of automated sensors, sampling data every 3 to 30 seconds.

Data is then packaged into 5-minute averages, and then transmitted in real-time to a central facility located at the University at Albany. There, data from all sites are quality-controlled and processed into files to be disseminated, including to National Weather Service and New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, Cuomo said.

The New York state mesonet complements the existing National Weather Service system of 27 automated stations by expanding the number of sites currently available to collect weather data and increasing the frequency of reports available.

New York is the seventh state in the nation to install a mesonet system, and is the first to include a “vertical profiler.” That provides more comprehensive temperature, wind and moisture information to further improve weather monitoring and prediction, Cuomo said.

More info on the Mesonet program is here.

A map of the 19 New York Mesonet stations is here.