Madison County, Texas, to Put Digital Eye to the Sky

Madison County, Texas, is no stranger to erratic and potentially dangerous weather conditions. In one instance in the summer of 2009, 80 mph winds fanned out across Madisonville a community 40 miles northeast of College Station, the home of Texas A&M University.

The downburst scattered debris far and wide. Roofs were ripped off, trailers and vehicles were overturned, and trees were uprooted.

In part because of this weather event and others, county officials are planning to install a weather station on top of the county courthouse this year. The weather station will track temperature, wind speed and direction, relative humidity, wind chill, barometric pressure and rainfall, said Shelly Butts, the county’s emergency management coordinator. County officials want to purchase the monitoring station from WeatherBug — whose claim to fame is a national weather network service with more than 22 million online users.

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