Progress 10/01/03 to 09/30/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Operation and maintenance of the automated weather stations across the state and its neighbors continued. We added a weather station in Inkster, Grand Forks County to assist potato growers with site specific potato late blight applications. NDSU plant pathologists used the data to deliver potato late blight recommendations to local potato growers. We added a test weather station to experiment a near real time data acquisition using cell phone modems. A test web site is created to display the latest 10-minute data on a smart phone friendly web site. We prepared monthly seasonal and annual climate summaries for the viewers to download. We added local impacts in the summaries such as drought and flood impacts. The web site for the automated weather stations is: http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/ and the summary of the state climate is available at the following web site: http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco. We also outreached to the end users via farm meetings and workshops such as Best of the Best in Wheat and Soybean workshop organized by NDSU extension Services, ND Farm Bureau workshop and Wheat Quality Council Training. We made sure we utilized all possible media to inform the end users including but not limited to newspaper, local television, brochures, e-mails and fact sheets. PARTICIPANTS: Not relevant to this project. TARGET AUDIENCES: Not relevant to this project. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
North Dakota and its neighboring states utilized the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) agricultural applications such as: growing degree days, departure from normal and departure from a known period for barley, canola, corn, potato, sugarbeet, sunflower, wheat, and other small grains. The growing degree day application helps farmers assess what growth stage their plants are in so that they can correctly apply treatments in time to save money and conserve resources. They used certain disease and herbicide applications based on weather conditions. For example, the Red River Valley sugarbeet producers save 10 million dollars annually by skipping a Cercospora application just because the weather did not deem an application necessary.
Publications
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2009: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Winter 2009): http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco/publication/ndsco/bulletin/winter09.pdf
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2010: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Spring 2010): http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco/publication/ndsco/bulletin/spring10.pdf
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2010: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Summer 2010): http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco/publication/ndsco/bulletin/summer10.pdf
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2010: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Fall 2010): http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco/publication/ndsco/bulletin/fall10.pdf
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2010: 2010 Growing Season Weather Summary: http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco/publication/gss/2010.pdf
- Akyuz, F. A. 2010: Weekly Crop and Pest Report, May 15 through August 21, 2010.NDSU Extension Service. http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/aginfo/entomology/ndsucpr/
- Mullins, B. 2010: 2010 North Dakota Monthly Weather Summary. http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco/publication/index.html
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Progress 10/01/08 to 09/30/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Several media are used to disseminate the outputs produced such as, 1)World Wide Web: The climate data from nearly 320 cooperative weather observing stations were collected and disseminated in a user-friendly format at the State Climate Office Web Site: http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/ndsco/. The web site has been moved to a new server for fast and reliable service to end users. The web site answers the following 3 main climate services: climate data, climate forecast, and climate education. They are the main climate service components identified by our national partner NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). It also includes near-real-time agricultural weather data utilizing the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN). The NDAWN is a network of 72 automated weather monitoring stations scattered throughout the prime-Agricultural locations of the state. 2)Printed Materials: The North Dakota State Climate Office periodically published monthly, seasonal, annual and growing season climate summaries to the climate data end-users. These materials are sent physically and electronically to the recipients across the nation. 3)Media: During this reporting period the Principal Investigator (PI) communicated with the mass audience via news paper, television, and radio interviews. The outputs were also delivered with periodic news releases with which wider news agencies and their audiences were reached. 4)Presentations: The outcome of the climate services were also delivered during face-to-face interactions with the audience through meetings, seminars, and other presentations where real time feedback were gathered through questions and answers. The PI assisted US Army Corps of Engineers with assessment of climate change impact on the Fargo-Moorhead flood risk management project. PARTICIPANTS: Not relevant to this project. TARGET AUDIENCES: Not relevant to this project. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
Crop models and climate data collection and analysis continue to improve annually as technology allows. These changes will certainly lead to better estimations on crop responses to the environment and natural resource management practices. These changes will also expand the utility of both models and climate data resulting the following impacts: -Understanding of local scale climatic events on crop selection and productivity, plant disease and weed control. American Crystal Sugar of the Red River Valley saves $10M annually for using NDAWN climate data to adjust the herbicide application frequency. -Maintaining long-term climate data to enable assessment of state crop productivity and economic viability -Assist US Army Corps of Engineers with development of flood risk models and predictive tools which provide assessment of climate change and management shifts. These models and predictive tools could be used to provide sound, logical, science-based inputs to appropriate policymakers.
Publications
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2009: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Fall 2009): http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco/publication/ndsco/bulletin/fall09.pdf
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2009: 2009 Growing Season Weather Summary: http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco/publication/gss/2009.pdf
- Akyuz, F. A. 2009: Weekly Crop and Pest Report, May 15 through August 21, 2009.NDSU Extension Service. http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/aginfo/entomology/ndsucpr/
- Mullins, B. 2009: 2009 North Dakota Monthly Weather Summary. http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco/publication/index.html
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2009: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Winter 2009): http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco/publication/ndsco/bulletin/winter09.pdf
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2009: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Spring 2009): http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco/publication/ndsco/bulletin/spring09.pdf
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2009: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Summer 2009): http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco/publication/ndsco/bulletin/summer09.pdf
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Progress 10/01/07 to 09/30/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The "State Climatic Studies and Services" outputs were disseminated using various media during this reporting period. They can be categorized as follows: 1)World Wide Web: The climate data from nearly 320 cooperative weather observing stations were collected and disseminated in a user-friendly format at the State Climate Office Web Site: http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/ndsco/. The web site is designed so that it provides 3 main climatic services: climate data, climate forecast, and climate education. It also includes near-real-time agricultural weather data utilizing the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN). The NDAWN is a network of 70 automated weather monitoring stations scattered throughout the prime-Agricultural locations of the state. 2)Printed Materials: The North Dakota State Climate Office periodically published monthly, seasonal, annual and growing season climate summaries to the climate data end-users. These materials are sent physically and electronically to the recipients across the nation. 3)Media: During this reporting period the Principal Investigator (PI) communicated with the mass audience via news paper, television, and radio interviews. The outputs were also delivered with periodic news releases with which wider news agencies and their audiences were reached. 4)Presentations: The outcome of the climate services were also delivered during face-to-face interactions with the audience through meetings, seminars, and other presentations where real time feedback were gathered through questions and answers. PARTICIPANTS: Not relevant to this project. TARGET AUDIENCES: Not relevant to this project. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
North Dakota Department of Transportation used NDAWN soil temperature information to determine load restrictions. Currently NDAWN deploys multiple probes at multiple depths under pavement in select locations in ND. Because of the advanced information dissemination capabilities that the North Dakota State Climate Office possesses, the target audience was quickly and most efficiently reached. The target audience is simply everyone whose lives are affected by the weather and climate in the state. The NDAWN network is designed to serve the agricultural community. Agriculture is the backbone of North Dakota's economy. The agricultural community uses NDAWN near-real-time data and agricultural application models in their daily decision-making process. For example, American Crystal Sugar (ACS) uses the weather data from the 11 NDAWN stations in the Red River Valley (RRV) to determine whether or not to apply a herbicide and the best time to apply the herbicide. The ACS claims that it costs $10 million per application in the RRV. Therefore, skipping an unnecessary application or proper timing of an application can realize $10 million to the local economy. This amount does not include the indirect savings such as avoiding the negative impact to the environment that the herbicide would have caused. The NDAWN system assists potato growers and many other agricultural sectors with similar applications including but not limited to irrigation scheduling, degree day application for energy usage application, growing degree day growth stages for 10 crops, disease forecaster for select crops, etc. Furthermore, there is an education component of the climate office. The climate data are used in the ND classrooms from elementary school to graduate school at North Dakota State University (NDSU). Students today have a better understanding of the weather and climate systems and how it affects everyone.
Publications
- Akyuz, F. A. 2008: Weekly Crop and Pest Report, May 15 through August 21, 2008.NDSU Extension Service. http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/aginfo/entomology/ndsucpr/
- Mullins, B. 2008: 2008 North Dakota Monthly Weather Summary. http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/ndsco/temperature/monthly/2008/observed/inde x.html
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2008: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Winter 2008): http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/ndsco/publication/ndsco/bulletin/winter08.pd f
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2008: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Spring 2008): http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/ndsco/publication/ndsco/bulletin/spring08.pd f
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2008: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Summer 2008): http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/ndsco/publication/ndsco/bulletin/summer08.pd f
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2008: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Fall 2008): http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/ndsco/publication/ndsco/bulletin/fall08.pdf
- Mullins, B. 2008: 2007 North Dakota Annual Weather Summary: http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/ndsco/publication/media/2007/Summer07Warm.pd f
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2008: 2008 Growing Season Weather Summary: Crop Production Guide No. 19, Crop Production Guise 2008, NDSU Extension Service, ND Agricultural Experiment Station, North Dakota State University. pp 1-13.
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Progress 10/01/06 to 09/30/07
Outputs
The "State Climatic Studies and Services" outputs were disseminated using various media during this reporting period. They can be categorized as follows: 1)World Wide Web: The climate data from nearly 320 cooperative weather observing stations were collected and disseminated in a user-friendly format at the State Climate Office Web Site: http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/ndsco/. The web site is designed so that it provides 3 main climatic services: climate data, climate forecast, and climate education. It also includes near-real-time agricultural weather data utilizing the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN). The NDAWN is a network of 70 automated weather monitoring stations scattered throughout the prime-Agricultural locations of the state. 2)Printed Materials: The North Dakota State Climate Office periodically published monthly, seasonal, annual and growing season climate summaries to the climate data end-users. These materials are sent physically and electronically to the recipients across the nation. 3)Media: During this reporting period the Principal Investigator (PI) communicated with the mass audience via news paper, television, and radio interviews. The outputs were also delivered with periodic news releases with which wider news agencies and their audiences were reached. 4)Presentations: The outcome of the climate services were also delivered during face-to-face interactions with the audience through meetings, seminars, and other presentations where real time feedback were gathered through questions and answers.
Impacts
Because of the advanced information dissemination capabilities that the North Dakota State Climate Office possesses, the target audience were quickly and most efficiently reached. The target audience is simply everyone whose lives are effected by the weather and climate in the state. The NDAWN network is designed to serve agricultural community. Agriculture is the backbone of North Dakota's economy. The agricultural community uses NDAWN near-real-time data and agricultural application models in their daily decision making process. For example, the American Cristal Sugar (ACS) uses the weather data from the 11 NDAWN stations in the Red River Valley (RRV) to determine weather or not to apply an herbicide and the best time to apply the herbicide. The ACS claims that it costs $10 million per application in the RRV. Therefore skipping an unnecessary application or timing an application can realize $10 Million to local economy. This amount does not include the indirect savings such as avoiding the negative impact to the environment that the herbicide would have caused. The NDAWN system assists potato growers and many other agricultural sectors with similar applications including but not limited to irrigation scheduling, degree day application for energy usage application, growing degree day growth stages for 10 crops, disease forecaster for select crops, etc. Furthermore, there is an education component of the climate office. The climate data are used in the ND classrooms from elementary school to graduate school of the North Dakota State University (NDSU). Students today have a better understanding of the weather and climate systems and how it effects everyone.
Publications
- Akyuz, F. A. 2007: Weekly Crop and Pest Report, NDSU (http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/aginfo/entomology/ndsucpr/)
- Mullins, B. 2007: North Dakota Monthly Weather Summary with respect to Normals and Departure from Normals. (http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/ndsco/AirTemps/Monthly/07maps/observe d/index.htm)
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2007: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Winter 2007): http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/ndsco/Reports/b2007/winter07.pdf
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2007: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Spring 2007): http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/ndsco/Reports/b2007/spring07.pdf
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2007: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Summer 2007): http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/ndsco/Reports/b2007/summer07.pdf
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2007: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Fall 2007): http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/ndsco/Reports/b2007/fall07.pdf
- Mullins, B. 2007: 2006 North Dakota Annual Weather Summary: http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/ndsco/Reports/GSS/2006GSS.pdf
- Akyuz, F. A. and B. Mullins. 2007: 2007 Growing Season Weather Summary: Crop Production Guide No. 18, Crop Production Guise 2008, NDSU Extension Service, ND Agricultural Experiment Station, North Dakota State University. pp 368-372.
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Progress 10/01/05 to 09/30/06
Outputs
Operation of the 68 station North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) system continued in cooperation with the High Plains Climate Center (HPCC). Each station was visited once for preventative maintenance and when necessary for equipment repair. During these trips 41 anemometers, 33 vanes, 45 temp-humidity probes, 22 rain gauges, 23 pyranometers, 9 batteries, 4 modems, and 5 dataloggers were replaced with refurbished, recalibrated, and/or new equipment. Maintenance, repair, and calibration records since the inception of the network were maintained on a revised Access database. Data are quality controlled daily by computer program and visual map inspection. Missing or erroneous data were estimated. Using a gauge with open sides we discovered that if a water drop splashes on the tipping bucket switch, it stops counting. The plastic shield was installed on all gauges. The top bearing on wind vane potentiometers has been failing within 2 years instead of the 4 with
the older brand. One station was moved and one new one installed. A 2-year study to develop a growing degree day-corn growth stage relationship for short maturity hybrids began with Plant Sciences. We began converting the NDAWN data base/internet system from MySQL to PostGresSQL last year. At the same time the departures from normal, from a 5-year avg, and from a user selected previous year are being added, but conversion has taken much longer than expected. These changes continue to enhance NDAWN's value to all North Dakota and border state producers, residents, businesses, and agencies through maximizing pesticide efficiency, documentation of hourly weather conditions and extremes, data summarization for any time period, and data analysis and plotting capabilities. A weather and climate data and information advisory service as part of the ND State Climatologist Office continued to serve area residents. Monthly requests averaged 12 to 15. Several climatic summaries were produced
including a growing season summary. Climate products generated as a result of requests and regular updates of climate maps were added to the State Climatologist web site (http://www.soilsci.ndsu.nodak.edu/Enz/index.html).
Impacts
Weather data from 68 North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) stations are used to predict crop, insect, and disease development information which is available through the data base/internet system (http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu). Development information helps producers make management decisions that maximize pesticide efficiency saving time and money. Other system features such as documentation of hourly weather conditions and extremes, data summarization for any time period, and data analysis and plotting capabilities have greatly enhanced NDAWN's value to all North Dakota producers, residents, businesses, and agencies. Departure from normal features will be released soon. Web pages requested total 377,998 in 2005 and through most of 2006 they number 407,099.
Publications
- Enz, J.W. and Mahoney, B.A. 2006. Climatic summary for the 2006 growing season in North Dakota IN: The 2007 Crop Production Guide. North Dakota Agricultural Association and ND State University. 8 pp.
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Progress 10/01/04 to 09/30/05
Outputs
Operation of the 67 station North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) system continued in cooperation with the High Plains Climate Center (HPCC). Each station was visited once for preventive maintenance and when necessary for equipment repair. During these trips 39 anemometers, 26 vanes, 40 temp-humidity probes, 55 rain gauges, 19 pyranometers, 11 batteries (2 per station), 5 modem, 1 solar panel, and 5 dataloggers were replaced with refurbished, recalibrated, and/or new equipment. Maintenance, repair, and calibration records since the inception of the network were maintained on a newly completed Access database. Data are quality controlled daily by computer program and visual map inspection. Missing or erroneous data were estimated. A rain gauge calibration system was developed and all gauges were recalibrated with excellent results compared to nearby NWS gauges. Voice modem programs were modified to also include yesterday's rainfall. One station was closed
and one new one was installed at a research site. The Crop Water Use and Irrigation Scheduling application developed in 1995, was rewritten. New features allow producers to choose a specific crop and emergence date. Data tables include daily and accumulated, rainfall, crop water use, water deficit, and a seasonal summary of water use and water deficit for each station. Data can be plotted. A sugarbeet GDD/herbicide timing model tested in 2004 was modified for the 2005 growing season. The system accumulates GDD after each application allowing producers to better time future applications on the basis of growth. Due to a cold May and June, producers applied herbicides less often and achieved better weed control with less chemical. Adding departures from Normal, and from 5-yr averages for weather data and applications was begun, but were difficult to program in MySQL. For technical reasons we began converting the data base to PostGresSQL. At the same time the departure features are being
added to the new version which is much easier. Growing degree day (GDD) departures for barley, corn, canola, wheat, and sunflower are complete along with help verbiage. Work continues on the weather data module. These changes continue to enhance NDAWN's value to all North Dakota and border state producers, residents, businesses, and agencies through maximizing pesticide efficiency, documentation of hourly weather conditions and extremes, data summarization for any time period, and data analysis and plotting capabilities. A weather and climate data and information advisory service as part of the ND State Climatologist Office continued to serve area residents. Monthly requests averaged 10 to 12. Several climatic summaries were produced including a growing season summary. Climate products generated as a result of requests and regular updates of climate maps were added to the web site (http://www.soilsci.ndsu.nodak.edu/Enz/index.html).
Impacts
Weather data from 67 North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) stations is used to predict crop, insect, and disease development information which is available through the new data base/internet system (http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu). Development information helps producers make management decisions that maximize pesticide efficiency saving time and money. Other system features such as documentation of hourly weather conditions and extremes, data summarization for any time period, and data analysis and plotting capabilities have greatly enhanced NDAWN's value to all North Dakota producers, residents, businesses, and agencies. Web site hits in 2004 were 2,000,985 and through Nov 2005 are 1,955,776.
Publications
- Enz, J.W. and Mahoney, B.A. 2005. Climatic summary for the 2005 growing season in North Dakota-How Wet Was it? IN: The 2006 Crop Production Guide. North Dakota Agricultural Association and ND State University. 7 pp.
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Progress 10/01/03 to 09/30/04
Outputs
Operation of the 67 station North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) system continued in cooperation with the High Plains Climate Center (HPCC). Each station was visited once for preventive maintenance and when necessary for equipment repair. During these trips 35 anemometers, 15 vanes, 50 temp-humidity probes, 22 rain gauges, 10 pyranometers, 72 batteries (2 per station), 1 modem, 3 solar panels, 1 barometer, and 3 dataloggers were replaced with refurbished, recalibrated, and/or new equipment. New voice modems that provide instantaneous values (10 min avgs for wind) continue to be popular with producers, pesticide applicators, and weather watchers. Complete maintenance, repair, and calibration records were maintained. Data are quality controlled daily by computer program and visual map inspection. Missing or erroneous data were estimated. The NDAWN data base/web site (ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu) source code was standardized across applications and features to
simplify adding new features and system maintenance. Now applications and features share most of the programming code. For example, all growing degree day (GDD)/growth stage applications have nearly identical data request forms and all provide the same table, graph, map, and graph features. Differences are mainly the formulas, parameters, dates, etc. that are unique for each crop. Mapping and graphing capabilities were added following standardization. After any table is displayed any variable can be plotted (graphed) versus time by clicking on the graph icon in the column heading allowing comparison between two or more stations. A new comprehensive testing system was completed to periodically check if all applications and data summarization systems were calculating proper results. In addition, the testing system helped find other previously unknown problems in the old source code. The sugarbeet cercospora and potato late blight disease applications, and the crop water use and
irrigation scheduling model were restructured to use the new code and take advantage of the plotting and mapping features. New barley and sugarbeet GDD/growth stage models were added for the 2004 growing season and sugarbeet producers implemented a new GDD based herbicide application strategy which achieved amazing success because of the cold 2004 growing season. Based on the slow accumulation of GDD, producers applied herbicides an average of once every 12 to 14 days instead of once per week as in the past. Results were spectacular. Much better weed control with fewer chemical applications. These changes have greatly enhanced NDAWN's value to all North Dakota producers, residents, businesses, and agencies through maximizing pesticide efficiency, documentation of hourly weather conditions and extremes, data summarization for any time period, and data analysis and plotting capabilities. From January 1 through November 16, 2004 there have been 328,685 page requests on the new NDAWN web
site. This is a 50% increase compared to all of 2003 and clearly indicates its value.
Impacts
Weather data from 67 North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) stations is used to predict crop, insect, and disease development information which is available through the new data base/internet system (http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu). Development information helps producers make management decisions that maximize pesticide efficiency saving time and money. Other system features such as documentation of hourly weather conditions and extremes, data summarization for any time period, and data analysis and plotting capabilities have greatly enhanced NDAWN's value to all North Dakota producers, residents, businesses, and agencies.
Publications
- Enz, J.W. and Mahoney, B.A. 2004. Climatic summary for the 2004 growing season in North Dakota -- How cold was it? IN: The 2005 Crop Production Guide. North Dakota Agricultural Association and ND State University. 10 pp.
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