Established as a multipurpose network, the Oklahoma Mesonet operates more than 110 surface observing stations that send data every 5 min to an operations center for data quality assurance, product generation, and dissemination. Quality-assured data are available within 5 min of the observation time. Since 1994, the Oklahoma Mesonet has collected 3.5 billion weather and soil observations and produced millions of decision-making products for its customers.

Since the Oklahoma Mesonet (the state’s automated mesoscale weather station network) was established in 1994, it has served a number of diverse groups and provided public services to foster weather preparedness, education, and public safety, while also supporting decision-making in agricultural production and wildland fire management. With 121 monitoring stations across the state, the Oklahoma Mesonet has developed an array of technologies to observe a variety of atmospheric and soil variables in 5- to 30-min intervals. These consistent observations have been especially critical for predicting and preparing for extreme weather events like droughts, floods, ice storms, and severe convective storms as well as for development of value-added tools. The tools, outreach programs, and mesoscale data have been widely utilized by the general public, state decision-makers, public safety officials, K–12 community, agricultural sector, and researchers, thus generating wide societal and economic benefits to many groups. Based on practical application examples of weather information provided by the Oklahoma Mesonet, this paper analyzes both benefits generated by Oklahoma Mesonet information to the public and decision-makers and ripple effects (spreading amplified outcomes/implications) of those benefits in the short and long term. The paper further details ongoing and anticipated Oklahoma Mesonet innovations as a response to changing needs for weather-related information over time, especially as a result of technological developments and weather variability.

Since 1997, the Oklahoma Mesonet (the state’s automated mesoscale weather station network) has served a community of more than 1,400 public safety officials (emergency managers, fire officials, law enforcement, etc.) across Oklahoma through a weather data and training program called Oklahoma’s First-Response Information Resource System using Telecommunications (OK-First). OK-First provides free weather and radar data interpretation classes to eligible public safety officials and, following successful completion of training, password-protected access to weather data tools including a website and software. The objective of OK-First when it began was to fill significant gaps in weather product training and data access for Oklahoma’s public safety community. Though the core mission remains the same 20 years later, many aspects of OK-First have evolved over time, including participant membership, training curriculum, formats of training, training requirements, website and software technology, and program feedback. The purpose of this paper is to provide an update on the Mesonet’s OK-First program, with a particular focus on training, tools, and the impact it has had on the public safety community.