If Texas had a system of weather monitors in every county, as Oklahoma does, the death toll from last month's flash flooding in Central and Southeast Texas might have been reduced, officials advocating such a system for Texas say.

Twenty-nine people died in Texas floods last month. And that's just the latest weather- related disaster that might have been mitigated if residents had received earlier warnings.

When a May 5, 1995, hail storm hit Fort Worth, dozens of Mayfest visitors were caught by surprise and were injured by softball-size chunks of ice.

Compare that with Moore, Okla., where a spotter -- with the help of a high-tech weather monitoring network -- saw a developing tornado last month and gave officials ample time to sound the warning.

The difference between the experiences in Texas and Oklahoma is the Mesonet, a system of weather monitors in every Oklahoma county that provides detailed real-time readings and monitors long-term weather phenomena like last summer's drought.

Although the Mesonet's primary function is to help agriculture and business, backers say it improves the accuracy of weather forecasts and allows earlier warnings of severe weather.

Although Texas rarely emulates its neighbor to the north, that is exactly what officials at two Texas universities -- with the help of utility companies -- hope to do.

Under a plan conceived at Texas A&M and Texas Tech universities, Texas would erect 600 Mesonet stations across the state and on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Lower Colorado River Authority has petitioned the Texas Public Utility Commission to allow utilities to charge customers about a dime a month to build and maintain the $40 million project. The system would include sensors to measure precipitation, temperature, wind and soil moisture. A few would monitor the lower atmosphere, and gauges would be placed along rivers and streams.

Although no opposition has developed, some utilities have expressed reluctance about adding another charge to customers' bills.

"We don't object at all to Texas using the most sophisticated weather equipment. We just ask that they find another way to fund it," said Houston Light and Power spokeswoman Leticia Lowe.

The utility commission is seeking public comment about the proposal.

Whether the Mesonet could have provided more warning of the 1995 Tarrant County hail storm is open to debate. The storm began producing large hail around Aledo, giving officials little time to warn people to take cover, said Skip Ely, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service Office in Fort Worth.

But a Mesonet system might have provided an earlier warning that a dangerous storm was developing, he said.

"When we look back, we underestimated a weak warm front that had been south of the area and moved north rapidly," Ely said. "With a Mesonet, we might have assessed the potential for the Mayfest storm and been able to put something out about three to six hours ahead to get people's attention."

In last month's flood, forecasters predicted heavy rainfall for the San Antonio area but were surprised by the 15 to 20 inches that fell. The Mesonet, which has real-time rain gauges and river monitors, might have warned officials earlier that lakes and streams were quickly filling.

And stations along the Mexican border might have given forecasters earlier information about the strength of the storm, which was partially fueled by a tropical system in the Pacific Ocean, said Gary Sickler, a Texas A&M meteorology professor and program manager for the Texas Mesonet.

Calhoun County officials endured last month's floods with only the Weather Channel and several river monitoring gauges. Last year, the National Weather Service de- commissioned a radar site in Victoria, leaving Calhoun County on the outer edge of radar sites based in Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Houston.

"I think we're basically blind down here," said Billy Zwerschke, Calhoun County emergency management coordinator and secretary of the International Association of Emergency Managers.

"With last month's floods, we had plenty of warning along the Gulf Coast that it was coming, but we haven't been able to say how long it will last," he said. "Three weeks after the floods, we still have people out of their homes and we don't know when the river will go down -- and now it's raining again. The Mesonet could help us with that."

The main push for the Mesonet is from people in agriculture. Texas A&M officials say the network would give farmers better information about long- term conditions and provide more accurate forecasts.

In Oklahoma, the Mesonet has shown that the drought is still prevalent in many counties despite fall rains, said Ken Crawford, a University of Oklahoma professor who created and runs the Oklahoma Mesonet.

Since its inception in 1994, the Mesonet has received about $20 million in research grants. Crawford, a 1961 graduate of Cleburne High School, said the public has noticed the net's effect in times of severe weather.

"The smallest emergency management office in the state of Oklahoma has data that a National Weather Service meteorologist would have killed for just 10 to 12 years ago," Crawford said. "That's how far we've come."

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