Perhaps no one follows the weather more closely than farmers. And now weather data from the state’s agricultural research stations is available to anyone with an Internet connection.
Virginia Tech recently completed a $25,000 upgrade of the weather stations at 13 research locations across the state.
“The Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station Mesonet has all these stations linked together and pulling data constantly,” said Joe Hunnings, Virginia Tech director of planning, reporting and civil rights compliance for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “The data collected includes soil temperature, rainfall, air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, soil moisture, wind direction, wind speed and solar radiation.”
Hunnings said there have been weather stations at many ag research centers for decades, but their equipment was outdated and required expensive maintenance and personal visits for record-keeping. Plus the information was available exclusively to researchers. Now most of the data is available at http://72.66.190.197/vaes.
“Our intent is to make the data come alive,” Hunnings said. “We’re working with researchers to come up with applications that producers can use to better their farm management practices.
“Anyone can see the past week’s worth of weather records. And you can sign in and get registered to get full access to the data. We’d love to have more and more people get involved and give us suggestions on ways we can use the data.”
A researcher at the Alson H. Smith Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center has begun using the weather data to track when eggs laid by the cereal leaf beetle are most likely to hatch, so farmers can better time their pesticide applications.
“And since most people want to know what’s happening right now, the website has the National Weather Service radar screen as well, to help track approaching weather fronts,” Hunnings said.
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