The Oklahoma Climatological Survey (OCS) was established by the University of Oklahoma in 1980 to provide climate services to the people of Oklahoma. In 1982, OCS was established under Oklahoma Sunset Law (HB 1937, c. 63) as a state entity. The Survey maintains an extensive array of climatological information, operates the Oklahoma Mesonet, and hosts a wide variety of educational outreach and scientific research projects.
The Oklahoma Mesonet is a world-class network of environmental monitoring stations. The network was designed and implemented by scientists at the University of Oklahoma (OU) and at Oklahoma State University (OSU).
The Oklahoma Mesonet was commissioned on January 1, 1994 and consists of 120 automated stations covering Oklahoma. There is at least one Mesonet station in each of Oklahoma’s 77 counties.
At each site, the environment is measured by a set of instruments located on or near a 10-meter-tall tower. The measurements are packaged into “observations” every 5 minutes, then the observations are transmitted to a central facility every 5 minutes, 24 hours per day year-round.
The Oklahoma Climatological Survey (OCS) at OU receives the observations, verifies the quality of the data and provides the data to Mesonet customers. It only takes 5 to 10 minutes from the time the measurements are acquired until they become available to the public.