S. 590 — Improving Flood and Agricultural Forecasts Act of 2025

This section directs the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere to maintain the National Mesonet Program (i.e., a network integrating environmental observations from Federal, commercial, academic, and other non-Federal sources to improve weather forecasts). The program must (1) prioritize leveraging non-Federal data to enhance coordination across the weather enterprise; (2) annually integrate denser and more diverse observations, including from local networks, soil moisture sensors, and ground-based profilers; (3) establish memoranda of understanding with external networks; and (4) coordinate with satellite data services. In implementing the program, the Under Secretary must (1) increase data density to support baseline forecasts, nowcasts, warnings, hyper-local predictions, subseasonal-to-seasonal models, air-sea interactions, and the National Weather Service's 30-minute severe weather warning target; (2) monitor local conditions by acquiring soil moisture and vegetation data for drought forecasting and the National Integrated Drought Information System, supporting the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network, and expanding road weather observations; and (3) administer the program cost-effectively by obtaining quality data only when demonstrably economical, leveraging existing networks (e.g., supplemental radars), providing integration infrastructure for new sources, coordinating with NOAA datasets, and identifying research priorities. The section further authorizes the Under Secretary to award financial assistance using at least 15% of annual appropriations—coordinated with other Federal awards and supplemented by technical support—for State, Tribal, private, and academic entities to build, expand, or upgrade mesonet systems and maintain stations in remote areas, subject to data-sharing agreements verified for operational value and cost.