Explore Montana’s Weather Stations Through a New Lens

If you’ve ever wondered what conditions actually look like on the ground at one of the Montana Mesonet’s weather stations — not just what the sensors are recording, but what the landscape looks like at that moment — the new Mesonet Photo Explorer was built for you.

Open the Mesonet Photo Explorer in a new tab ↗

Using the Photo Explorer, you can browse imagery captured by cameras installed at over 120 HydroMet stations currently active across central and eastern Montana, with the network set to grow to 200+ stations by the end of 2027. These stations, funded through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and NOAA, were designed to improve drought and flood forecasting across the Upper Missouri River Basin, with coverage of roughly one station per 500 square miles. Each one is equipped with a pan-tilt-zoom camera that regularly photographs the surrounding landscape in all cardinal directions, toward the sky, and at the snowpack.

Here’s what you can do with it:

Browse by date and time to see how conditions have changed across the season, pick a camera direction to compare that view simultaneously across all stations, or click any station on the map to open a photo gallery and get a ground-level look at what’s happening there. If you find something worth sharing — an early snowpack, a striking sky, a dry summer panorama — you can copy a shareable link directly from the tool or export the current map view as a PNG.

The Photo Explorer is designed to complement the Mesonet’s sensor data, which already tracks temperature, humidity, wind, precipitation, and soil conditions statewide. Together, the numbers and the images give you a fuller picture of what’s happening across Montana’s landscape.

The tool is freely available — no account or login needed. Head to mesonet.climate.umt.edu/photos and take a look.