Schumer wants more federal funding to improve storm-tracking network

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) on Monday said he wants to secure $30 million for the nation’s network of weather-monitoring systems, known as “mesonets,”

New York has a mesonet in every single county, Schumer’s office noted in its announcement. The $30 million would represent a $10 million increase from a year ago.

The lawmaker is pushing for the funding “after a record-setting 20 tornadoes [in New York] in July 2024, with 10 occurring in just one day,” per his office.

Schumer discussed the issue during a Monday visit to the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) in Syracuse.

Schumer said that recent severe storms, like the devastating tornado in Rome, “show how in the midst of global weather changes, storms can often move, meander, and mystify” meteorologists, and that a “state-of-the-art ability to track, monitor and inform” a forecast “matters more than ever” to keep the Upstate region “safe and prepared” for extreme storms.

“What we saw in Central NY, the Mohawk Valley, and the North Country this month was like a scene out of the movie ‘Twister’ with a record-setting 20+ tornadoes. What we’re seeing more and more across the country is increasing extreme weather that we need to be prepared for, and that means we need to invest in always upgrading to have the most state-of-the-art weather tracking technology to get early emergency warning and fast hyper local data to be prepared for any storm that comes our way,” Schumer said in the announcement. “New York has one of the strongest mesonet programs in the county with at least one in every county. While some in Washington want to cut our weather programs, I am here today to launch my push to increase funding to upgrade our nation’s weather monitoring services because as recent storms show we need the sharpest forecasts possible so we are prepared for whatever punches Mother Nature delivers.”

Schumer said New York’s mesonet weather-data program unlocks key data from the clouds using advanced instruments at 127 sites around the state and laser technology to monitor the atmosphere. Schumer said past New York hurricanes and tropical storms showed that “we need sharper forecasts to better understand storms.”