Next generation equipment is being installed by South Dakota State University at its Mesonet weather station 3 miles NNE of Flandreau on trust land (N44.0867°, W96.5849°).
The upgraded station will collect improved data and new data:
-Temperature and humidity
-Wind
-Solar radiation (for crop water demand and snowpack models)

-Precipitation (rainfall and snowfall water content)
-Snow depth
-Soil temperature and soil moisture at five depths
-Temperature inversion
-Weather cam images
The new station will completely replace the existing Flandreau Mesonet station about 100 feet to the south. There will be no break in service and the new station is expected to be online by the end of September. The existing station will be removed at that time.
Elizabeth Wakeman, Program Director for the tribe’s Brownfield Program, brought weather monitoring to Flandreau in about 2007 (then located in the city limits of Flandreau) and has collaborated with SDSU since then to assist in the station’s maintenance and to make the most of its data. Ms. Wakeman and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe have really taken a leading role in making quality weather data available to, and put to work for tribes. The tribe’s partnership with the Mesonet has served and continues to serve as a model for successful collaborations with other tribes in the state.
Live and archived data from the station is available on the South Dakota State University’s Mesonet website at https://mesonet.sdstate.edu/flandreau. Its data is also used to improve weather forecasts, severe weather monitoring, drought monitoring and flood forecasting.