STATE CLIMATE SERVICES IN NORTH DAKOTA

• Sponsoring Institution: State Agricultural Experiment Station
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: STATE
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1009324
• Project Start Date: Feb 17, 2016
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2020
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIV
1310 BOLLEY DR
FARGO,ND 58105-5750

Performing Department
School of Natural Resource Sciences

Non Technical Summary
Our normal daily and seasonally fluctuating weather makes us vulnerable to flood, drought, freeze and heat, all of which impact our economy, environment and safety. The demand for accurate, accessible and useful climate information is growing with increased awareness and understanding of climate impacts on society. Climate variability may have significant impacts on the agricultural community, yet any assessment about climate change contains some degree of uncertainty. This uncertainty needs to be communicated effectively for other scientists, the general public, and decision- makers to make informed judgments about the future of our climate. This project will help the audience understand uncertancies in climate predictions, climate variability and how it impacts their daily lives.Weather and climate affects all aspects of agriculture (production, storage, processing, and transportation). Climate also affects energy use and development, water resources, and other factors vital to human welfare. Long-term climatic data is indispensable in planning many agricultural, environmental, industrial, and engineering activities such as land use planning, road and structure design and site selection, and establishment of large animal facilities and landfills Availability of timely (near-real-time) detailed weather data is also a key to more efficient and profitable agricultural production. Agricultural models can warn of impending disease or insect infestations so corrective action may be taken at the optimum time. A model may also indicate that no action is required, thus saving a producer time and money as well as reducing pesticide use and its potential environmental effects. Other models provide management information on herbicide, insecticide, and irrigation water applications. However, these models require detailed data such as hourly and daily relative humidity, air and soil temperature, solar radiation, rainfall, wind speed and direction, dew point temperature, and soil temperature. The North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) was developed specifically to provide these data for agriculture and other interests among our target audience.Weather conditions throughout the growing season determine the rate of development of crops, weeds, insects, and diseases. Producers can make management decisions using models that warn of impending insect or disease infestations that coincide with susceptible crop stages. Current and potential benefits of more efficient chemical use are immense. For example, if just one fungicide application is eliminated on sugarbeets, North Dakota producers save over $9 million by reserving one application to sugarbeet growers. Furthermore, North Dakota small grain growers can save $26 million because of accurate risk prediction and appropriate fungicide use. In addition, reduced pesticide use reduces ground water contamination and other adverse environmental effects. This research will undoubtedly produce additional gains in efficiency, cost savings, and crop quality in agricultural sector.

Animal Health Component

40%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

30%

Applied

40%

Developmental

30%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
132	0430	2070	100%

Knowledge Area
132 - Weather and Climate;

Subject Of Investigation
0430 - Climate;

Field Of Science
2070 - Meteorology and climatology;

Keywords

climate variability

climate services

climate education

agriculture and climate.

Goals / Objectives
Enhance-monitoring and collection of research-quality weather information:Maintenance of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) System for improved data collection through enhanced temporal and spatial scales.Recruit volunteer observers for the citizen's network of precipitation observers into the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) in North Dakota.Enhance the soil moisture and temperature monitoring capabilities in the state to assist the National Weather Service (NWS) flood forecast and the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) drought assessment capabilities.Climate data stewardship and data sharing:Maintain integrity of the historical climate records. Analyze, summarize and interpret North Dakota climatic data.Share data nationally through the Meteorological Analysis and Data Ingest System (MADIS) and maintain metadata requirements at national standards.Outreach and public education: Conduct outreach and public education in North Dakota on climate variability, products, data and information.

Project Methods
Efforts: We will expand knowledge in climate science to people through formal classroom instruction (Introduction to meteorology and climatology), guest lecture instruction, K-12 class visits to educate pre-college students, workshops, outreach and public education. We will develop and implement agricultural models that help farmers making decision in local levels such as growing degree day calculations for corn, wheat, sugrbeet, barley, canola and sunflower seeds, irrigation scheduling, herbicide timing.Evaluation: We will self-evaluate ourselves against the activities listed under the products section. Milestones of the progress will also be self-evaluated. Indicator of success is whether or not the products are in place by the end of the reporting period.

Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?NDAWN staff was trained to assist in giving additional presentations on the usage of the products associated with the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network plus other topics related to weather and climate to a broader audience. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Addtional presentations about NDAWN. Plans to add additional stations in the mesonet to increase knowledge of and acquire weather data in areas that have been lacking atmospheric monitoring in the past. Adding more soil monitoring equipment on more stations. NDAWN is also working on adding more "all season" rain gauges that would allow for winter precipitation measurements (liquid equivalency of snow), plus adding snow depth sensors and cameras to monitor the winter snow pack that impacts spring flood forecasting.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Maintenance and calibrations were done on all stations. During this reporting period the following updates/additions were done to NDAWN: Addition of 8 tower stations were added to the mesonet: Wolverton, MN, Wolford, Perth and Clyde North Dakota Stations converted from Tripod to Tower: Streeter and Prosper Addition of tripod Oil Micronet stations: Tioga, Hanks, Keene, Grassy Butte, Fayette, Hirschville, New Hradec, Battleview, Portal, Palermo, Fairfield The addition of tripod station in Minnesota: Glyndon The addition of 2 tripod stations in North Dakota: Stirum and Wales Additional soil moisture and temperature monitoring capabilites were added to assist the National Weather Service and the River Forecasting Centers on soil water and temperature conditions in many parts of the NDAWN mesonet. Historical database of all NDAWN data was maintained and updated with new hardware and software. NDAWN is continuing to upload data to the Meteorological Analysis and Data Ingest System (MADIS) and metadata requrements were maintained. Public outreach on the usage and tools available from NDAWN was done at numerous talks given in the region. NDAWN has inversion sensors at allstations and much training went into giving agricultural producers information on how to use these data when spraying.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ritchison, D. 2019: Using Predictive Tools to Plan for Future Weather Conditions. Cereal Foods World, Vol. 64, No. 2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1094/CFW-64-2-0017

Progress 02/17/16 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:Agricultural producers, government entities, private businesses and the public at large were all reached during this project. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A recent atmospheric science major and two engineering majors worked for NDAWN during the summer of 2019. The atmospheric science student found a job in the area in weather instrumentation because of the training he required during his summer employment. The two engineering students found employment in their fields and used NDAWN experience and training as resume material to obtain the jobs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?NDAWN staff training on presentation skillsto assist the director in training of NDAWN tools to the public. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Maintenance and calibrations were done on all stations each year. During this reporting period the following updates/additions were done to NDAWN: 2016 Stations converted to Tower: Langdon, Carrington 2016 addition of 3 Stations: Carson, Williams, and Fox 2016 Number of Stations: 85 2017 Stations converted to Tower: Bowman 2017 addition of 6 tripod stations: Edmore, Alamo, Dagmar, Dooley, Redstone, Hope 2017 Number of Stations: 91 2018 addition of 3 tower Station: Maddock, Adams, Niles 2018 Stations converted to Tower: Minot 2018 addition of 7 tripod Stations: Zeeland, Crystal, Genoa, Kempton, Ray, Steele, Webster 2018 addition of 12 MN Ag Wthr Network: Ottertail, Perham, Becker, Clarissa, Hubbard, Little Falls, Parkers Prairie, Pine Point, Rice, Staples, Wadena, Westport 2018 Number of Stations: 113 2019 addition of 8 tower stations: Sawyer, Grenora, Noonan, Fortuna, Denhoff, Courtenay, Logan Center, Amidon 2019 Stations converted to Tower: Pekin 2019 addition of 18 tripod Oil Micronet stations: Werner, Rat Lake, Hawkeye, Crane Creek, Charbonneau, Croff, Medicine Hole, Liberty, Arnegard, Epping, Hebron, Dry Fork, Powers Lake, Big Bend, Alexander, Antelope Creek, Four Bears, Sunny Slope 2019 addition of 1 MN Ag Wthr Network: Hampton 2019 moved Ross 2019 Number of Stations: 140 2020 addition of 5 tower stations: Wolford, Wolverton, Clyde, Perth, Ayr 2020 Stations converted to Tower: Streeter, Prosper 2020 addition of 3 tripod stations: Stirum, Glyndon, Wales 2020 addition of 11 Oil Micronet stations: Tioga, Hanks, Keene, Grassy Butte, Fayette, Hirschville, New Hradec, Battleview, Portal, Palermo, Fairfield 2020 Number of Stations: 161 Additional CoCoRaHS observers were added to that network and recruitment was done via public presentations. Additional soil moisture and temperature monitoring capabilites were added to assist the National Weather Service and the River Forecasting Centers on soil water and temperature conditions in many parts of the NDAWN mesonet. Approximately one-third of the mesonet stations now have soil moisture measuring capabilities. These data are used by drought monitoring agencies, farmers and flood forecasters and other stakeholders. Historical database of all NDAWN data were maintained and updated with new hardware and software. NDAWN is continuing to upload data to the Meteorological Analysis and Data Ingest System (MADIS) and metadata requrements were maintained. Public outreach on the usage and tools available from NDAWN was done at numerous talks given in the region each year. NDAWN has inversion sensors at all stations and much training went into giving agricultural producers information on how to use these data when spraying.

Publications

Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Agricultural producers, government entities, private businesses and the public at large were all reached during this reporting period. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A recent atmospheric science major and two engineering majors worked for NDAWN during the summer of 2019. The atmospheric science student found a job in the area in weather instrumentation because of the training he required during his summer employment. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Additional NDAWN staff was trained to assist in giving additional presentations on the usage of the products associated with the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network plus other topics related to weather and climate to a broader audience. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Addtional presentations about NDAWN. Plans to addadditional stations in the mesonet to increase knowledge of and acquire weather data in areas that have been lacking atmospheric monitoring in the past. Adding more soil monitoring equipment on more stations.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Maintenance and calibrations were done on all stations. During this reporting period the following updates/additions were done to NDAWN: Addition of 8 tower stations: Sawyer, Grenora, Noonan, Fortuna, Denhoff, Courtenay, Logan Center, Amidon This station was converted to a Tower: Pekin Additionof 18tripod Oil Micronet stations: Werner, Rat Lake, Hawkeye, Crane Creek, Charbonneau, Croff, Medicine Hole, Liberty, Arnegard, Epping, Hebron, Dry Fork, Powers Lake, Big Bend, Alexander, Antelope Creek, Four Bears, Sunny Slope The addition of 1 MN Ag weatherNetwork: Hampton The Ross NDAWN station was moved about 2 miles to a location that serves that area better as the old location had trees and other obstacles placed nearby that impacted weather monitoring. Additional CoCoRaHS observers were added to that network and recruitment was done via public presentations. Additional soil moisture and temperature monitoring capabilites were added to assist the National Weather Service and the River Forecasting Centers on soil water and temperature conditions in many parts of the NDAWN mesonet. Historical database of all NDAWN data was maintained and updated with new hardware and software. NDAWN is continuing to upload data to the Meteorological Analysis and Data Ingest System (MADIS) and metadata requrements were maintained. Public outreach on the usage and tools available from NDAWN was done at numerous talks givenin the region. NDAWN has inversion sensors at all but one station and much training went into giving agricultural producers information on how to use these data when spraying.

Publications

Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:1. Stations were maintained and data collected. Several additional stations were added to the network and NDAWN now encompasses 113 stations. New stations were added near Niles, Webster, Adams, Zeeland, Maddock, Steele, Genoa, Ray, Kempton and Crystal, North Dakota. Also stations were added near Pine Point, Hubbard, Wadena, Perham, Othertail, Parkers Prairie, Staples, Clarissa, Westport, Little Falls, Rice and Becker Minnesota. 2. NDAWN website recorded over 4 million page views in this period according to Google Analytics. 3. Several presentations were given on NDAWN and the useage of our website. 4. Inversion sensorsare now onapproximately 1/3 of the mesonet. Plus, a inversion app was developed and now sprayers can use the NDAWN inversion application on their smart phones or tablets to get notifications of when an inversion is in place in their selected area. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?One recent atmospheric science major worked for NDAWN part-timelast summer and was trained in weather instrumentation and siting to meet international standards for weather data collection. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Numerous (dozens) of talks were given during this period by the NDAWN staff on the useage of the products associated with the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Netowrk (NDAWN) plus other topics related to weather and climate. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Additional presentations about NDAWN. Adding inversion sensor capabilities to additional NDAWN stations. The goal is to have all 113 stations with inversion sensors by the end of 2019. It is likely that several additional NDAWN stations will be installed to fill in gap areas in our current coverage.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. Maintenance and calibrationswere done on all stations. 2.Some additional CoCoRaHS observers were added to that network. 3. Some additional moisture and temperature monitoring capabilites was added to assis the National Weather Service and the United States Geological Survey on soil water conditions in many parts of the NDAWN mesonet. 4. Historical records maintained. 5. NDAWN is continuing to upload data to the Meteorological Analysis and Data Ingest System (MADIS) and maintain metadata requirements at national standards.

Publications

Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:• Farmers • Commodity groups Several public presentations were given to agricultural groups on weather and climate trends, useage and tools associated with the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) among other topics. •Insurance adjusters • Three meetings were held with insurance adjusters giving them information on finding weather information beneficial to their jobs. Discussing of NDAWN benefits and other data sources. • General public • Several speaking engagements were made to the general public on a wide variety of weather and climate subjects, including historical storms, climate, weather usage, NDAWN, severe weather training to name a few. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Some web based training on CoCoRaHS was given during the year. Several training events were held at various locations through the region to demonstrate the usefulness of the NDAWN data for monitoring the weather and soil. Potato Blight App was released for potato farmers. Inversion data training was also held. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Additional training is already scheduled for 2018 on several topics. Most notable will be training on inversion tools within NDAWN, adding additional inversion sensors to aid in the knowledge of sprayers to more safely use Dicamba herbicide.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. Stations were maintained and data collected. Additional stations were added and the NDAWN mesonet now encompasses 91 stations. These new stations were in Redstone, Dooley and Dagmar, Montana and in Alamo, Edmore and Hope, North Dakota.Data is now collected and relayed via our website every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day through all seasons. The NDAWN website recorded 4.5 million page views in 2017 according to Google Analytics. 2. Some additional CoCoRaHS observers were added to that volunteer network. Participated in the QC of the precipitation data. 3. Additional soil moisture and temperature data was installed within NDAWN to enchance the reach of these data types. NDAWN data is now being shared through MADIS to NOAA users. Several presentation on NDAWN useage were given during this time period.

Publications

Progress 02/17/16 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Agricultural communities, K-12 audience, state agencies, commercial entities, local and regional media, North Dakota Citizens. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We provided instructional videos to volunteer observers reporting rain, hail and snow. We conducted workshops for master gardener event that was broadcasted all across the state via video conferencing. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We disseminated information to our target audience using websites, face to face meetings or using printed media as well as radio or television appearances. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Same as this year.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Enhance-monitoring and collection of research-quality weather information Maintenance of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) System for improved data collection through enhanced temporal and spatial scales: Maintenance of a network of 80+ weather stations were performed throughout the period. Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and annual data were made available at a dedicated website for public consumption. End users were able to parse the data for other time frames is desired. Ner-Real time data were also made available in table and map format. Volunteer observers to measure rain, hail and snow recruited. Currently, North Dakota enjoys more than 300 volunteer observers reporting daily precipitation observations. This data have been used by the National Weather Service to calculate flood potential, to issue watches, warnings and advisories. Soil moisture sensors were installed at select locations across the region. The data made available at: https://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/soil-moisture.html Climate data stewardship and data sharing: Monthly and quarterly climate reports were distributed for public consumption at North Dakota State Climate Office website (https://www.ndsu.edu/ndsco/resources/ ). Periodic emails were sent to North Dakota agricultural communities and various media sources immediately after the publication of these periodical climate reports. An approppriateMeteorological Analysis and Data Ingest System (MADIS) interface was formed to share the data collected through the local network of weather stations. Based on the specifications, we authorized only federal entities to collect the data. Outreach and public education: Conduct outreach and public education in North Dakota on climate variability, products, data and information. We made public presentations at K-12 schools such as during Expanding your horizons or severe weather awareness week. We made presentations in farm meetings to educate our target audience about climate change and its agricultural implications in the northern plains. We used media to reach out to greater audience immediately after a meteorologically important event took place, such as a flood or a severe storm. We answered public and private questions related to weather and climate.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Ryberg, K. R., A. V. Vecchia, F. A. Akyuz, and W. Lin. 2016: Tree-Ring Based Estimates of Long-Term Seasonal Precipitation in the Souris River Region of Saskatchewan, North Dakota, and Manitoba. Canadian Water Resources Journal. DOI: 10.1080/07011784.2016.1164627. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2016.1164627)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Uecker, B, and F. A. Akyuz. Climate Change Throughout the Dakotas. American Association of State Climatologists Annual Meeting, Santa Fe, NM. June 28-Jul 1, 2016.
• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Akyuz, F. A., D. Ritchison. 2016: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Winter 2015-16). Vol 10, No 1. https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/ndsco/ndsco/bulletin/winter16.pdf
• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Akyuz, F. A., D. Ritchison. 2016: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Spring 2016). Vol 10, No 2. https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/ndsco/ndsco/bulletin/spring16.pdf
• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Akyuz, F. A. 2016: Quarterly North Dakota Climate Bulletin (Summer 2016). Vol 10, No 3. https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/ndsco/ndsco/bulletin/summer16.pdf
• Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Climate Change Throughout The Dakota: https://www.ndsu.edu/climate
• Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Uecker, B. R. 2016: Climate Change Throughout The Dakota. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty Of the North Dakota State University Of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Natural Resources. 79p.