Twenty long time ago , the Florida Automated Weather web ( FAWN ) launched on the premise that weather information from the airport is n’t enough for those in distant rural areas whose livelihoods depend on dew points and wind speed .
by Jack Payne
The University of Florida ’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension has long recognise perhaps no one rely on this selective information more than growers do . So UF / IFAS Extension brought weather condition station nearer to the greenhouse .
Today , Extension has 42 weather station on public lands in rural areas to take the temperature of your neighborhood .
Then , Extension institute the weather stations justly onto farms . In the past five long time , Extension has installed 200 weather stations on individual farms , ranches , and plantation . That mean we can give you reading on rain in your neck of the woods .
FNGLA was a central musician in the Ag Weather Task Force that champion the founding of the connection . It come after in persuading first the province legislature and then the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( via the Florida Division of Emergency Management ) to provide the startup funds for FAWN .
Since then , the Florida agriculture industriousness has help FAWN expand . Other mate groups admit the Farm Bureau , the Florida Strawberry Growers Association , the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services , and the state ’s water direction districts .
FNGLA members chance FAWN specially utile in expectation of freezes . The real - time selective information have by FAWN helps baby’s room and landscape professionals make decision about freeze out protection .
We ’re looking ahead to the prospect of fork up data so local that you may consider your nursery its own microclimate . UF / IFAS forecast someday your smartphone will essentially give you a weather mathematical function of the field you ’re make for .
The technical challenge is how to harness the produce mountain of data . FAWN touchstone rafts of atmospheric condition indicators every 15 minutes 24/7 . We ’ll need to combine the right pieces of that data point with information from other sources such as the National Weather Service to make greyish brown even more useful .
Fortunately , this is just what UF / IFAS research and Extension do . We deliver discovery to you in useable form . Kati Migliaccio , the newfangled chair of the UF / IFAS Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering , uses FAWN data to force back the phone apps she uprise to help producers of avocado pear , citrus , cotton , strawberries and turf adjudicate when and how much to water .
The entropy can be just as valuable after the fact . We had a spike in FAWN habit after Hurricane Irma as producers seek to document for relief agency just what hit their crop those fatal few days last September .
We ’ve come around to hurricane time of year again , when everyone , not just growers , pays a piddling more attention to the weather condition . FAWN pays attention all yr . Individual agents occasionally go on holiday , but Extension never does .
The future of FAWN include other role of UF , not just IFAS , harvest utile grower data . For example , the Emerging Pathogens Institute may use FAWN data to determine how to limit your employees ’ vulnerability to heat stress , a huge challenge in a climate like ours .
Extension brings UF to you . Usually it ’s IFAS that has your solution , but Extension finds what you necessitate among UF ’s 16 colleges and yard of staff members .
The bedspread of UF / IFAS FAWN stations means you’re able to carry us around with you in your pelvic girdle pocket . file name extension meets you where you are . If you ’re like most the great unwashed , this is progressively on your smartphone . It ’s part of our 24/7 loyalty to product factory farm .
For more informationFNGLA1533 Park Center DriveOrlando , FL 32835 - 5705Toll - Free : +1 ( 800 ) 375 - 3642 thymine : +1 ( 407 ) 295 - 7994F : +1 ( 407 ) 295 - 1619[email protected]www.fngla.org
