A new online dashboard — released Wednesday in beta test form — now gives the public access to a growing network of weather and climate monitoring stations across Hawaii, providing critical near-real-time data for everything from forecasting and farming to fire prevention and public safety.
Hawaii Mesonet, led by University of Hawaii at Manoa climatologist Thomas Giambelluca, is a recently developed initiative to build a locally operated and scientifically rigorous monitoring network across the islands. Launched with a National Science Foundation grant in 2021, Mesonet has grown to 65 active stations with plans to install more than 100 in total and possibly as many as 110.
Hawaii is one of only 20 states that has not had a statewide Mesonet until now.
The system is designed to fill long-standing gaps in the state’s climate data, especially in areas vulnerable to extreme weather, fire, flooding and water stress.
“We founded this to serve many purposes,” Giambelluca said. “To support weather forecasting, natural resource management, farming, ranching, emergency management and really, in general, to be able to deal with extreme weather, to be prepared for extreme weather.”
Each Mesonet station collects 21 types of environmental data, including rainfall, wind, temperature, soil moisture and relative humidity. Sensors scan every second; averages are logged every five minutes and transmitted to servers every 15 minutes. The new dashboard brings that high- frequency data directly to the public in near real time.
“Just being able to know what’s going on in your neighborhood with really high-quality data, up to date, and measurements of not just the kind of routine variables of temperature and rainfall, but a really wide range of variables that tell you all about the conditions,” Giambelluca said, “we feel like this is really a big step up from what has been available.”
The system also was developed with future resilience in mind, Giambelluca said, both against environmental risks and potential federal funding cuts.
Though federal partners such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Mesonet Program currently cover roughly 40% of annual operating costs, Giambelluca said he is seeking sustainable state support to cover the rest.
The network requires about $600,000 annually to maintain and operate.
“We’re certainly not advocating for the cessation of weather monitoring by federal agencies, but we are seeing signs of that happening,” he said. “So it is really important … that we have our own network that is locally designed and locally operated … insulated from possible future federal cuts.”
The stations are also highly durable, equipped with precision instruments designed to last with minimal recalibration.
For example, rainfall is measured to a hundredth of an inch, soil moisture to within half a percent, and relative humidity within 1%.
Giambelluca said the system includes a rigorous maintenance program to ensure long-term reliability.
Installing new stations is a careful, multifaceted process. The team analyzes existing coverage by other agencies, targets data-scarce areas and prioritizes fire-prone zones, high-rainfall watersheds and regions with rapid climate shifts over short distances. Sites must also have willing landowners — ideally, institutional partners — who can commit to long-term access, minimal interference from trees or buildings, and adequate cell coverage for data transmission.
That kind of coverage could have made a difference during the Aug. 8, 2023, Maui wildfires. At the time of the disaster, there were no live, telemetered wind measurements available in all of West Maui.
“One of the things that we did in response to that was to install a station in Lahaina immediately, as soon as we could,” Giambelluca said. “We did that in September of 2023. … As you remember, wind was an important factor in starting the fire and spreading the fire that day. So having that information would have been valuable.”
The new dashboard allows the public to access Mesonet data through an interactive, intuitive platform.
Cherryle Hue, lead developer of the dashboard, said users can view live weather conditions by clicking on any of the active stations displayed on the site’s map.
“What you’re seeing here is the landing page to the Hawaii Mesonet live data access,” Hue said. “We have the 65 active stations as well as the planned-for installation stations listed here.”
Clicking on a station, such as Haleakala’s summit or Lahaina, brings users to a live dashboard showing temperature, rainfall, solar radiation and other variables graphed over the previous 24 hours. Measurements are updated approximately every 15 minutes. Users can also view data over the past three or seven days, switch between metric and imperial units, and compare conditions across stations to observe climate variability.
For example, during a demonstration, Hue pointed out that the Haleakala station showed 48 degrees Fahrenheit, while Lahaina read 76 degrees at the same time.
“This dashboard is really the real-time information,” Hue said. “We envision users to be able to leave the site open and see current conditions as quickly as they possibly could.”
In addition to real-time data, users can access historical information through an interactive graphing feature or request custom data reports by email. The system allows downloads of up to 90 days of historical data with graphing capabilities to compare up to three variables across custom time ranges.
The development team currently includes about 10 people, ranging from field crews who install and maintain the stations to data managers, developers and back-end IT staff. Giambelluca emphasized the growing network already is playing a crucial role in public safety.
“From the beginning we recognized that it would have little value if we were not able to get the data to the people who need it, and get it to them on time,” he said. “And that’s why we’re so excited to be able to launch this new resource. We think it’s an excellent tool to make the data available to all those who need it.”
As Hawaii faces increasing risks from extreme weather, drought and wildfire, Giambelluca believes Hawaii Mesonet can provide communities, agencies and emergency responders with the accurate and timely local information they need to make decisions that save lives.
For information
Visit the Hawaii Mesonet website at hawaii.edu/climate-data-portal/hawaii-mesonet.
