The South Alabama Mesonet is a network of 26 automated weather stations, located in the north-central Gulf Coast area and was founded in 2004 by University of South Alabama Meteorology professor Dr. Sytske Kimball. The weather stations collect 16 meteorological- and soil- quantities including temperature, rainfall, wind speed and direction, soil temperature and humidity. Measurements are made automatically every minute of the day, every day of the year. The Mesonet is entirely funded through grants and donations to support routine maintenance (removing vegetation and animal nests), sensor replacement/repair, calibration of instruments, and to pay our student workers.

Mesonet weather station data have inspired a wide variety of research projects at the University of South Alabama addressing local weather events and phenomena including cold fronts, landfall of tropical storms, sea breezes, nocturnal cooling, and local wind and rainfall climatologies. The weather stations and their data are used in the Meteorology curriculum at the University of South Alabama. Meteorology majors can take a class in Meteorological Instrumentation, get involved in weather station maintenance, social media outreach, and participate in research projects using Mesonet data. The Mobile National Weather Service forecast office uses the data on a frequent basis to issue severe weather and flash flood warnings and to perform post weather event analyses. Thirteen stations are located on local public school campuses and are used for K-12 outreach activities. The Mesonet serves the wider Gulf Coast community in a wide range of applications including agriculture, ecosystem monitoring, fire weather, recreation, renewable energy, air quality and health, emergency management, litigation, and climate change.