MOBILE – Meteorologists at the University of South Alabama’s Coastal Weather Research Center are casting a dragnet for future hurricanes. A major element of the plan was unveiled Thursday morning (Aug. 23) at the main USA campus in Mobile.

The Center for Hurricane Intensity and Landfall Investigation (CHILI) program is geared toward collecting data from 30 solar powered weather stations that will be placed at coastal schools in Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle.

The information will be used to help researchers learn more about the changes hurricanes undergo as they move ashore. It is hoped the program will one day help save lives when tropical systems strike the Gulf Coast.

Dr. Sytske Kimball, USA assistant professor of meteorology and CHILI director, said, “There are all sorts of uncertainties when hurricanes make landfall. Researchers want to know things such as how the wind fields change, and Hurricane Katrina made us realize how badly this data is needed.”

Katrina struck two years ago, on Aug. 29, 2005. Kimball said some weather stations on the ground along the Gulf Coast were destroyed, including one in the Biloxi, Miss. area, which leaned when intense winds hit the tower. Some data was collected, however.

“In previous landfalling hurricanes, we have collected data, but it’s not always complete,” she said. “The coverage is not as complete as we hope (it will be) with this. As the storm is coming onshore, we will get information. This is also going to help the National Weather Service with their forecast because the data streams real time.”

Kimball said the weather stations should withstand winds from weaker hurricanes (Category 1-2 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale). She noted it’s “questionable” whether the installations would survive stronger storms.

Currently four CHILI stations are operational, at schools in Bay Minette and Mount Vernon, and in Pascagoula and Agricola, Miss. The fifth – the one on the north end of the college campus – expected to go live within days.

A total of six are planned for Baldwin County. Schools on the Eastern Shore, the central and south parts of the county, and Pleasure Island are all scheduled to host weather stations.

Data being collected includes temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction at different levels as well as pressure, rainfall and atmospheric radiation from the sun.

The numbers gathered by the weather sensors mounted on a tower, along with those mounted at ground level, are sent to a data logger at each station. The information is stored there, and is also transmitted via a wireless connection to a nearby computer linked to the network.

Although the main purpose of the hardware is hurricane study, the weather stations will come in handy all year long.

“While they are sitting here collecting data, we’ll use them for education and outreach,” said Dr. Sytske Kimball, USA assistant professor of meteorology and CHILI director. “We’re going to set up workshops, and come out and talk about what a weather station is, what happens with the data in real life.”

Each weather station will cost around $20,000 to equip and install. CHILI was kicked off last year with a $1.2 million grant from NOAA. The existing stations are funded by a National Science Foundation grant.

The program will receive additional funding next year through an additional $550,000 NOAA grant. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a ranking member of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science was a key player in securing the grant.