Anoka County Emergency Management operates small sized weather stations located throughout the county. These stations provide weather data to support local first responders with information that is easily accessible, accurate and for the location they are nearest to. The location of these weather stations allows for far better coverage of the entire county to determine weather conditions closest to the incident.
Historically weather was received by the dispatch center through a phone call to the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Chanhassen. This information was gathered based on a request from a first responder in the field for wind direction or other weather information. The National Weather Service essentially gave the conditions from the nearest airport weather station they operated. Often this was inaccurate based on the distance away from the emergency and not timely (up to the minute).
The data collected from these weather stations is available on a real time basis to our first responders, the National Weather Service and the public for use in planning and responding to weather emergencies and emergencies or events that can be affected by the weather.