DEOS monitors regional weather

3:52 p.m., July 11, 2005--UD’s Department of Geography has developed a web site that is sure to brighten the lives of true weather enthusiasts on campus and throughout the region.

The Delaware Environmental Observing System, which can be found at [www.deos.udel.edu], is a real-time monitoring system for the entire state that provides a wealth of information on temperature, rainfall, stream levels and tides. It features colorful charts and reams of data presented in ways that are easy to use and understand.

DEOS is managed by UD’s Daniel J. Leathers, department chairperson and state climatologist, and David R. Legates, associate professor of geography and associate state climatologist.

They described DEOS as a tool for decision-makers involved with emergency management, natural resource monitoring, transportation and other activities throughout the state and the surrounding region. Two of the biggest users are the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) and, especially during potentially dangerous weather events, the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA).

Through the system, UD works with local, county, state and federal agencies to provide as much up-to-date environmental information as possible to the public. Furthermore, the system is committed to providing reports on real-time environmental conditions throughout the Delmarva Peninsula.

Leathers said DEOS consists of three main components: a network of meteorological observations sites, which are coupled with existing weather and environmental observation sites in and around the state; an integrated visualization and analysis system that integrates surface weather observations with National Weather Service radar to provide estimates of meteorological and environmental variables over a high spatial resolution grid; and an analysis system designed to provide support to decision-makers in a variety of environmentally sensitive areas.

Legates said the installation of DEOS began in the summer of 2003, and it is expected that compete installation and development of the system will be finished by 2008.

The solar-powered DEOS observation stations include wind monitors, pyranometers to measure solar radiation, wetness sensors, relative humidity and soil temperature probes and rain gauges.

Leathers, who is about to hand over the position of state climatologist to Legates after about 12 years in the job, said the UD Department of Geography began working with the state in the late 1990s on severe weather alerts in the case of snowstorms, hurricanes, tropical storms and other events.

Impetus for DEOS came after Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and increased interest was generated in the wake of the severe flooding in Glenville, Del., brought on by the remnants of Tropical Storm Henri in 2003. From these events, it became apparent there was a need for better information and earlier warning of high waters rushing down northern Delaware’s streambeds.

It also became apparent the state needed a network of weather stations instead of the single one on which it relied at the New Castle County Airport near New Castle, given the wide variety of weather conditions across the state’s three counties. “We realized that we really needed a monitoring network across the state to monitor meteorological and environmental conditions,” Leathers said.

With initial funding from DEMA, the project got under way. By the end of summer, UD will have 17 meteorological stations of its own placed strategically around the state and in southern Chester County, Pa., and Cecil County, Md.

Information from those stations is melded with information being collected by other organizations, including the Southeastern Chester County Refuse Authority, the Delaware Solid Waste Authority, the National Weather Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, which operates a network of tidal and stream gauges throughout the region.

In the coastal region, Legates said they hope to eventually have weather stations spaced about every five miles ranging from Kitts Hummock to Assateague Island.

The system also will include a geographic information system (GIS) component, Legates said. Both UD and the geography department have strong interest in GIS.

Leathers said data on the site is updated every five minutes. Viewers can click on the map of the region to get information boxes that provide them pertinent data. Eventually, they hope to break the map into 2-kilometer by 2-kilometer boxes for more detailed information and analysis.

The site has been exceptionally active, Leathers said, averaging about 100,000 hits per month. As can be expected, use goes up during times of “interesting weather,” he said, such as the June 6 thunderstorms that brought heavy rains.

The weather information is fed into an Oracle database, and Legates said the database has triggers that set off warnings when, for instance, rainfall in a given watershed tops a specific threshold indicating the potential for flooding. “That way, we can alert people to possible flooding, as in Glenville,” Legates said. “It can also provide warnings for extreme heat or wind chill.”

Legates said one of the advantages of systems such as DEOS is that they can track weather events across a region. That is of value not just to state agencies but also private companies. He previously did some work for Duke Energy, which could track heat waves across a region and get a good understanding when and where customers might turn on air conditioners and thus increase power consumption.

As the new director of the Delaware Geographical Alliance, Legates sees the system as a tremendous teaching tool. “It enables students to see weather spatially,” he said. “It is one thing to see a list of temperatures but it is quite another to see the migration of weather patterns. For instance, when a front comes through, this enables you to actually see the changes in rainfall, temperature, wind direction and barometric pressure. It helps students better understand because they can see what is happening.”

The ultimate goal, both Leathers and Legates said, is to create a regional climate consortium. Locally, they have been working with officials in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. They have also received interest from officials at the Kentucky Climate Center at Western Kentucky University, which is interested in the visualization software that has been developed, and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, which is interested in the GIS applications.

In connection with DEOS, Legates said they have been working with the News Journal newspaper to create the Delaware Environmental Monitors program. Historically, the State Climate Office had a network of weather observers who recorded precipitation from around the state on index cards and mailed them to UD but membership had dwindled and new technology now makes it possible to record data by using the Internet.

With interest from the News Journal in having weather observers around the state, Legates said they decided to team up in a joint venture and have since provided about 100 observers with modern equipment. “We thought this would be a good joint venture with value to both the News Journal and UD’s DEOS project,” he said.

Article by Neil Thomas

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