U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer is calling on increased federal funding for the nation's weather monitoring systems and the NYS Mesonet, a weather network consisting of 127 weather stations, with at least one in all 62 counties in the state of New York.

Schumer is pushing for $30 million in federal funding, a $10 million increase from last year, for the NYS Mesonet system. He says that the increase in funding is critical due to the recent pattern of severe weather that has impacted New York, including the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby, flooding and multiple tornadoes that touched down in Erie County and broke New York's record for the most tornadoes in a year.

“Everyone in Buffalo knows the power of Mother Nature, whether it be from a lake effect snowstorm or the rare tornado like we saw last week. We’re seeing increasing extreme weather, and that means we need to invest in the most advanced weather tracking technology for Western N.Y. and our national weather observation systems to keep our communities safe and prepared,” said Schumer. 

“While some in Washington want to cut our weather programs, I am here today to say that we should be increasing funding to upgrade our nation’s weather monitoring services. Having real-time, minute-by-minute weather updates with hyper-local data like we are able to get from NY’s mesonet system and from Buffalo’s Nation Weather Service HQ is absolutely essential. As this summer of record-breaking extreme weather has shown, it is more important than ever to focus on prioritizing federal funding for the National Weather Service to ensure that our systems aren’t just running, but state-of-the-art,” he continued.

Schumer also said he is pushing for increased funding for NOAA’s large weather satellites program which operates the nation’s satellites that collect data used by the National Weather Service and more, and he is pushing for an over $100 million increase to boost this program in the final appropriations bill.