Georgia farmers have known all along that weather profoundly
affects our lives. With
the winter’s icy surge in late January, the rest of us know now
that accurate weather
information isn’t just for farmers.

“People are finding a growing range of needs for our
data,” said
Gerrit Hoogenboom, a
University of Georgia associate professor of biological and
agricultural engineering.

“Besides agricultural sites, many utilities in the
state are using it in their
planning,” he said. “Construction firms are finding
it useful, and a number of
lawyers use the data in litigation cases. Schools are beginning
to use it more in
education, too.”

Automated Environmental
Monitoring

From the Griffin,
Ga., campus of the UGA
College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences,
Hoogenboom spent much of the 1990s assembling the Automated
Environmental Monitoring
Network.

From the outset, the network was focused on collecting
reliable weather information for
agricultural and environmental uses. It has become one of the
best available in any U.S.
state.

Every second, each automated station in the network monitors
air temperature, relative humidity, rainfall,
solar
radiation, wind speed,
wind
direction and soil
temperature at 2-, 4- and 8-inch depths.

Web Wealth of Weather
Data

A Web
site
provides the collected data, maps, applications that make the
numbers easier to use, and ample links to other weather
information.

The network began with monitoring stations (about $5,500
each) on the UGA experiment
stations in Watkinsville
, Griffin and
Tifton. Soon
stations were added at each of the seven branch stations in
Attapulgus,
Eatonton,
Savannah,
Blairsville,
Calhoun,
Midville and Plains
.

Weather Network
Expanding

Now, Hoogenboom places the number of stations at “40-plus.”
A dozen are on private farms, nurseries or golf courses.

“We’ve continued to expand all along,” he said.
“I’m in the process of installing four more stations over the
next month or two. We should have around 45 stations by
midyear.”

To help make the data easier to use, Hoogenboom added a
number of applications to the
Web site. These enable people to get, in seconds, data on weather history, degree days, chilling hours, water balance, heating and cooling days and crop models.

Adams Farm’s Many Uses

James Lee Adams, who has one of the stations on his farm
near Camilla, Ga., said he
constantly checks the soil temperatures as he prepares to plan
cotton, peanuts and corn.

• “We use the data in a lot of ways,” he
  said.
• Air temperature and humidity data help in adjusting the
  climate in the farm’s poultry
  houses.
• Temperature reports help avoid aflatoxin in peanuts.
• Heat units help determine cotton’s maturity.
• Rainfall and evapotranspiration rates help in scheduling
  irrigation.
• Temperature and wind data help schedule pesticide
  spraying.

Data and the Bottom
Line

Spraying chemicals at the most efficient time helps protect
the environment. “But
the bottom line,” Adams said, “is that being more
efficient saves us
money.”

Utility companies use the heating or cooling degree-day
calculators to help them plan
for their customers’ heating and cooling needs. It helps with
customer education, too.

“The heating- and cooling-day figures help customers
understand the variations in
their bills,” said Jim Hunter, manager of marketing and
member services for Colquitt Electric Membership
Corporation in south
Georgia..

When Hoogenboom began setting up the network in 1991, he
planned to have each station
download its data daily into the data base in Griffin.

Timely Weather
Data

As he began developing the network Web site in 1998, though,
it became clear the daily
download wouldn’t be enough. “We began to hear from people
who wanted current weather
conditions,” he said.

Now, the eight stations in metro Atlanta, which have
toll-free phone connections,
update their data every 15 minutes. A number of grants cover
the $10,000 long-distance
bill to enable 14 other stations to download every hour. Each
site “owner” in
the network pays the monthly local phone charges, which spreads
out another $13,000 in
annual phone costs.

As the network expands, the range of its users — and the
value each assigns to it –
is growing, too.

“It’s something we have to learn to use more,”
Adams said. “The more we
use it, the more valuable it’s going to be.”