Schatz, Marshall Introduce Legislation To Improve Weather Forecasts, Help Communities Better Prepare For Extreme Weather
U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) today introduced a bill to strengthen the collection of weather and soil moisture data, improving the accuracy of extreme weather warnings and agriculture forecasts. The Improving Flood and Agricultural Forecasts Act of 2025 codifies and expands the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Mesonet Program, an initiative that aims to fill gaps in local weather data that impact forecasting and disaster response, as well as supporting agriculture and other weather-dependent industries through improved data collection.
“For Hawai‘i and other states vulnerable to floods, droughts, and severe weather, better data means better forecasts, better prepared communities, and faster emergency response times,” said Senator Schatz, a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. “This same data also helps farmers and ranchers navigate droughts.”
“The mesonet and soil moisture monitoring probes are crucial tools for Kansans. Weather affects everything on the farm, and a deeper understanding of what’s happening above and below the ground provides farmers more certainty when making crop decisions,” said Senator Marshall. “Better weather data collection for Kansas also helps us predict wildfires and tornadoes before they arrive, which has the potential to save lives in cases of extreme weather. I’m proud to introduce this important, bipartisan legislation.”
Mesonets are weather observation data networks crucial for forecasting weather, flood, fire, and agricultural impacts. The legislation would provide grants to states, Tribes, private entities, and universities to expand local weather observation systems. By authorizing and enabling NOAA to purchase local weather data, assess its quality and cost-effectiveness, and integrate it into key forecasting systems, the bill aims to improve disaster preparedness and agricultural production nationwide. The legislation builds on Schatz’s efforts to increase funding for NOAA’s Mesonet Program, which has supported a key soil moisture sensing network in Hawai‘i.
The text of the bill is available here.
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