Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T03:56:05.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

United States Department of Agriculture's weather and climate information system for operational applications in agriculture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2007

Raymond Motha  and
Robert Stefanski
Raymond Motha
Affiliation:
World Agricultural Outlook Board, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC, USA
Robert Stefanski
Affiliation:
World Agricultural Outlook Board, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC, USA
Get access

Abstract

There are many challenges facing today's farmers and the use of weather and climate can help farmers in meeting and overcoming these challenges. Additionally, government decision-makers use information on actual and potential crop production impacts, a large percentage of which is based on weather and climate information such as drought, heavy rain events, and hurricanes. The Joint Agricultural Weather Facility (JAWF) is an example of one U.S. Government organization successfully using weather and climate information in many of its operational applications that are disseminated to users. These agricultural weather applications or products are grouped into tactical (short-term) and strategic (long-term) products. Examples of tactical products discussed include the Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin (WWCB); routine and special crop-weather assessments, and a Regional Weather Network in Mississippi. Strategic products discussed include the U.S. Drought Monitor and the use of weather information in the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) process. The purpose of this paper is to provide some successful applications of climate and weather information and how this information is communicated between this agrometeorological service and farmers. Also, the goal is to provide lessons learned for other agrometeorological services around the world.

Keywords

crop-weather assessmentsagrometeorological informationfarm management decisionssupply and demand estimatesdrought
Type
Research Article
Information
Meteorological Applications , Volume 13 , Issue S1 , December 2006 , pp. 31 - 47
Copyright
Royal Meteorological Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cochran, M. J., Tugwell, N. P., Bourland, F. M., Oosterhuis, D. M. & Danforth, D. M. 1998 COTMAN Expert System, Version 5.0. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas.Google Scholar
Harris, F. A., Cooke,, F. T. Jr., Andrews, G. L. & Furr,, R. E. Jr. 1997 Monitoring node above white flower as basis for cotton insecticide treatment termination, Mississippi State University, MAFES Bulletin 1068.Google Scholar
Huang, J., Van Den Dool, H. & Georgakakos, K. 1996 Analysis of model-calculated soil moisture over the United States (1931–93) and application to long-range temperature forecasts. J. Climate, 9: 1350–1362.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keetch, J. & Byram, G. 1968 A drought index for forest fire control. Forest Service Research Paper SE-38, USDA, p. 32.Google Scholar
Kogan, F. 1995 Droughts of the late 1980s in the United States as derived from NOAA polar-orbiting satellite data. Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc. 76: 655–668.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKee, T., Doesken, N. & Kleist, J. 1993 The relationship of drought frequency and duration to time scales. Preprints, Eighth Conference on Applied Climatology. Anaheim, CA: Am. Meteor. Soc., pp. 179–184.Google Scholar
Morris, B. P. 2001 Meteorological database management system at the USDA. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Interactive and Information Processing Systems, Orlando, FL.Google Scholar
Motha, R. & Heddinghaus, T. 1986 The Joint Agricultural Weather Facility's Operational Assessment Program. Am. Meteorol. Soc. Bull. 67: 1114–1112.Google Scholar
Motha, R., Puterbaugh, T., Stefanski, R. & Brusberg, M. 1994 Major World Crop Areas and Climatic Profiles, 3rd edn. World Agricultural Outlook Board, USDA, Agriculture Handbook No. 664, p. 279.Google Scholar
Motha, R. 2002 Agrometeorological bulletins: How can we improve them? In Proceedings of an Inter-Regional Workshop ‘Improving Agrometeorological Bulletins', Bridgetown, Barbados, 15–19 October 2001, AGM-5. Geneva, Switzerland, WMO/TD No. 1108.Google Scholar
Palmer, W. 1965 Meteorological drought. Office of Climatology Research Paper 45, U.S. Weather Bureau, p. 58.Google Scholar
Puterbaugh, T., Stefanski, R. & Brusberg, M. 1997 The Joint Agricultural Weather Facility's Operational Procedures for Processing and Analyzing Global Crop and Weather Data. In: Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems. Long Beach, CA: Am. Meteorol. Soc., pp. 46–49.Google Scholar
Puterbaugh, T., Morris, B., Shannon, H., Rippey, B., Brusberg, M. & Stefanski, R. 2000 Weather data management and software applications at the USDA Joint Agricultural Weather Facility. In: Proceedings of an Expert Group Meeting on Software for Agroclimatic Data Management, 16–20 October 2000, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Shannon, H. 2001 ArcView applications in USDA crop weather analysis. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Interactive and Information Processing Systems, Orlando, FL.Google Scholar
Shannon, H. & Motha, R. 2002 Application of GIS technology for agrometeorological bulletins. In: Proceedings of the Inter-Regional Workshop ‘Improving Agrometeorological Bulletins’, Bridgetown, Barbados, 15–19 October 2001. Geneva, Switzerland, AGM-5, WMO/TD No. 1108.Google Scholar
Svoboda, M., LeComte, D., Hayes, M., Heim, R., Gleason, K., Angel, J., Rippey, B., Tinker, R., Palecki, M., Stooksbury, D., Miskus, D. & Stephens, S. 2002 The Drought Monitor. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 83 (8): 1181–1190.Google Scholar
Vogel, F. & Bange, G. 1999 Understanding crop statistics. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Miscellaneous publication no. 1554.Google Scholar
Wilhite, D. 2000 Drought as a natural hazard: Concepts and definitions. In: Wilhite, D. A. (ed.), Drought: A Global Assessment, vol. 1. London: Routledge, pp. 3–18.Google Scholar
Willeke, G., Hosking, J., Wallis, J. & Guttman, N. 1994 The National Drought Atlas. Institute for Water Resources Rep. 94-NDS-4, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, CD-ROM.Google Scholar