An interactive map of live and historical weather & soil
observations from every Montana Mesonet station. Pick a variable, pick a time,
and read the network at a glance.
Start here
- Variable — the dropdown picks what the dots show: air, wind,
precipitation, soil, ET, and groundwater measurements.
- Time — Latest is live and auto-refreshes;
Hourly and Daily let you pick any date.
- A station — tap or click a dot for its value, details, a photo,
and a link to its dashboard.
- Share — the URL reflects every choice, so a bookmark or a
copied link reopens exactly this view.
Time modes in detail
- Latest — most recent observation at each station, auto-refreshed. Stations reporting more than 3 hours ago are hidden as stale (toggle them back in the legend).
- Hourly — pick any date and hour to see hourly values across the network.
- Daily — pick any date to see daily aggregates (totals for precipitation, means for most other variables).
All controls & shortcuts
- Variable — the list adapts to the time mode: precipitation accumulations and soil-moisture change appear in Latest, reference ET in Hourly/Daily, and growing degree days in Daily.
- Search — press / to jump there; ↑/↓ + Enter to pick a station. (Add
?kbd=off to the URL to disable the / shortcut.)
- Networks — chips toggle HydroMet / AgriMet stations.
- Hover a dot for the station's value; click for details, a photo, and a dashboard link. On a phone the details open as a sheet you can drag up for more or swipe down to dismiss.
- Stacked stations — a small count badge marks sites with more than one station; hovering or clicking fans them out, and the details panel lists the others under "Also at this site".
- Units — °F/°C toggles between U.S. and metric units.
- Legend — click the No-data / Stale rows to show or hide those stations; check boxes to add counties, watersheds, or live radar.
- Color scale — click the color strip to pick a different ramp or set a custom range; the pin locks the scale in place while you step through dates and hours. "≤"/"≥" on the ends means a few extreme values share the end colors.
- Export — download a branded PNG of the current view (fixed Montana framing, color scale included).
- On a narrow screen — the ⋯ button in the header holds units, labels, export, share, theme, and the network chips.
- Esc closes any popup.
?station=<id> deep-links a single station.
What the terms mean
- HydroMet / AgriMet — the Mesonet's two sub-networks: core weather & water-supply stations, and agriculture-focused stations with expanded soil sensing.
- Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) — the drying power of the air; higher means faster water loss from plants and soil.
- Comprehensive Climate Index (CCI) — a livestock weather-stress index combining temperature, humidity, wind, and solar radiation.
- Soil VWC — volumetric water content: the share of the soil's volume that is water.
- Percent Saturation — how full the soil's pore space is with water, relative to its maximum.
- Soil Water Potential — how tightly the soil holds its remaining water; higher values mean drier soil that roots must work harder to draw from.
- Bulk EC — the soil's electrical conductivity, which tracks salinity and moisture.
- Δ VWC — the change in soil water content over a trailing window; positive is wetting, negative is drying.
- Reference ET — the water a well-watered grass surface would lose to evaporation and transpiration; a baseline for irrigation planning.
- Growing Degree Days (GDD) — accumulated warmth above a crop base temperature, used to track crop development.
- Stale — a station whose latest report is more than 3 hours old (usually a connectivity gap); hidden by default in Latest mode.
