Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

WERA-102:  Climate Data and Analyses for Applications in Agriculture and Natural Resources

Annual Report – Accomplishments

October1, 2016 – September 31, 2017

Climate change, drought, and pronounced natural climate variability pose major challenges to agriculture and natural resource management in the western United States. In turn, climate information—historical, real-time and prognostic—is vital for the sustainable management of these resources. The use of climate information is a key component of decision support tools, programs, technologies, and practices that protect and enhance water, soil, and air. Likewise, legislation and policy must incorporate knowledge of climate variability and change if we hope to maintain the stability and long-term viability of agriculture, water, timber and other goods and services in the West. These activities are consistent with efforts to be carried out under the USDA Climate Hub Program.

Currently climate data and information are collected by a wide range of federal, state and local agencies, as well as many non-governmental organizations. This information is then stored and distributed in myriad ways. Accessing relevant and reliable climate-related products continues to be a major challenge for the agriculture and natural resource communities. Communication among the various agencies and organizations responsible for this information is becoming increasingly important as a means of leveraging data collection efforts, maintaining monitoring stations, and for disseminating products that best meet stakeholder needs. State Climatologists (SCs) and NOAA Regional Climate Centers (RCCs) fill some of these coordination needs at the state and regional level, and the National Climatic Data Center performs similar—but limited—functions at the national level. However, there is a pressing need in the western US to enhance cooperation and coordination, and to address issues that SCs and RCCs working alone are not well-equipped to tackle. Collaboration and cooperation with the USDA Climate Hub Program can benefit both groups’ efforts to meet their mission statements and goals. 

Over the past 30 plus years, the Western Extension Research Activity (WERA)-102committee has served a critical function in ensuring coordination and cooperation among the many and varied groups responsible for producing climate data, climate-related information and products in the West. In times of increasingly tight budgets, the committee is playing an increasing role in ensuring the sustainability and economic viability of the networks and partnerships responsible for creating and distributing these products. Given the significant economic impacts from adverse weather and climate variability and change, it is also prudent that the committee continue to serve as a focal point for ensuring the persistence of strong weather and climate research and applications programs in the West. In short, this committee has served as a forum for coordination, discussion, and prioritization of data collection, research, and applications. It has been a platform to promote the efficient use of limited resources and to enhance our collective ability meet stakeholder needs. The new committee proposal aims to re-invigorate these activities in partnership with the western USDA Climate Hubs located in Corvallis, Oregon; Davis, California; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Fort Collins, Colorado.

Colorado:  The Colorado Climate Center is engaged in a number of activities aimed at improving climate data and information for the agricultural sector. These activities range from improved resolution of climate data collection, to improved data accessibility to stakeholders, to additional product development using climate data. The Colorado Climate Center is home to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network, which is an organization of over 20,000 citizen scientists around the country. This network focuses on measuring precipitation.  The Climate Center is home to the Colorado Agricultural Meteorological Network (CoAgMET). CoAgMET focuses on providing robust precipitation measurements and reference evapotranspiration measurements for WISE irrigation scheduling. This network also serves as Colorado’s state mesonet. The Climate Center’s support for these activities is provided by the Colorado State University Agricultural Experiment Station, The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), the Colorado Water Conservation Board, Oregon State’s PRISM Climate Group, as well as some other smaller projects and private donors.

Kentucky:  The overall goal of the Ren research group is to understand, assess and predict natural processes and human-caused changes in Earth’s ecosystems and climate by using an integrated systems approach employing a combination of numerical models, remote sensing and GIS, and field observations and measurements. The recent research focus of the lab is therefore driven by the key scientific question: How can we identify climate smart agricultural practices at plot and field scales to regional and watershed scales that are effective at mitigating climate change, protecting soil health, and sustaining land and aquatic systems while also enhancing food production? An integrated system approach is needed to support my research programs, which consists of the following compoents:

• Agroecosystem model improvement
• Multi-source data collection and analysis
• Model input data development
• Data-model integration and model simulations for specific research question

AgriMet is the Bureau of Reclamation's network of automated weather stations for agricultural consumptive water use modeling.  The program encompasses agricultural areas in the Pacific Northwest region (the states of Idaho, Washington, Oregon, western Montana and portions of northern California, Nevada, Utah and western Wyoming) as well as central and eastern Montana in Reclamation’s Great Plains region.  AgriMet provides timely crop water use information to a variety of customers, including federal and state agencies, irrigation districts, agricultural consultants, county extension agents, university researchers, and individual farmers and irrigators.  The information is used to help irrigators apply the right amount of water to their crops at the right time.  Potential program benefits include conservation of water and power resources, improved agricultural production, reductions in soil erosion, and improvements in surface and ground water quality.

 The AgriMet program consists of the following components:

• In the Pacific Northwest Region: A network of 116 automated weather stations, 11 stations operated by the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory, and over 100 operated by other state entities that provide the data required for crop water use modeling.
• In the Great Plains Region: A network of 21 automated weather stations.
• A cell phone modem based collection and downlink system, shared with the Hydromet program.
• A set of computer programs for data quality control and crop consumptive water use modeling.
• An information dissemination system, including a home page on the World Wide Web and publication in local agricultural newspapers.

Primary AgriMet sponsorship continues to be coordinated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.  Additional sponsorships and cooperating users include Bonneville Power Administration, other public and private electric utilities, irrigation districts, state land grant universities, Cooperative Extension Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Agricultural Research Service, and other state and local agricultural and water resource organizations.  Operation and maintenance costs are cost-shared through sponsorship agreements with participating entities.

Objective 1.  Collaborate with federal agency climate hubs and centers to highlight their unique roles and leverage limited resources for research activities related to agriculture and resource management in the western U.S.

Colorado:

• There are 74 active CoAgMET stations across the state of Colorado. All stations report hourly and daily data, 46 of these stations report data at 5-minute frequency. All these stations are equipped to measure the weather variables for calculating reference evapotranspiration, and aid in smart irrigation scheduling.
• CoAgMET data are ingested into MADIS, and are accessed by the National Weather Service.
• Calibration and maintenance of CoAgMET stations is performed at least once yearly for each active station. Remedial maintenance is provided as needed.
• The CoAgMET website (coagmet.colostate.edu) is currently undergoing a major user interface overhaul. This includes a mapping system for daily, hourly, and five minute data, and improves the accessibility of data.
• The CoCoRaHS network boasts over 12,000 precipitation reports in the United States on a daily basis. Precipitation reports also come from Canada and the Bahamas.
• CoCoRaHS and CoAgMET data are included in Oregon State’s PRISM climate mapping tool.
• CoCoRaHS data are accessed by the National Weather Service, other meteorologists and hydrologists, emergency managers, city utilities, and many other organizations.
• CoCoRaHS has recently expanded operations to include soil moisture monitoring and condition monitoring.

  AgriMet: 

• Calibration and maintenance of sensors was performed at AgriMet stations during the spring in preparation for the growing season.
• Remedial maintenance visits were made as needed to weather stations in order to maintain operational status and data quality standards.
• The Metric ET Remote Sensing model utilizes AgriMet data as “ground truths” for calibration of the model. Data collection methods and computations are done in conjunction with Dr. Rick Allen, University of Idaho, Kimberly (developer of Metric) to optimize data accuracy.
• Reclamation continues to cooperate with the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory to transfer information from eleven existing stations to Reclamation’s computer system for use in crop water modeling.
• Reclamation injests data from over 60 weather stations managed by Utah Climate Center, Nevada Desert Research Institute and Colorado Climate Center.
• Enhancements continue to be made to Reclamation’s AgriMet Home Page on the World Wide Web to improve access to weather and crop water use information.
• Near-real time weather data from AgriMet stations continue to be incorporated into several other networks to improve the delivery of timely weather data to a variety of users: the Mesowest Network (sponsored by the University of Utah), the National Weather Service in Missoula, MT (Current surface observations in the Pacific Northwest), USDA World Agricultural Outlook Board, Oregon State University’s Integrated Plant Protection Center, Oregon State University’s Irrigation Water Management Online Program, AWIS Weather Services, Inc., and Irrisoft’s Weather Reach irrigation water management system.
• Reclamation is participating in the Committee for Integrated Observing Systems (CIOS), an initiative by the Federal Government to integrate numerous weather networks.

Objective 2.  Evaluate monitoring network capabilities to facilitate regional comparison of data to address critical issues in agriculture and natural resources management.

Colorado:

• Subseasonal to seasonal forecasting is the most commonly-voiced stakeholder need in the agricultural sector. Dr. Becky Bolinger of Colorado State University is leveraging existing seasonal forecasting resources such as the Climate Prediction Center and North American Multi-Model Ensemble to produce probabilistic seasonal forecasts for the five state region of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.
• Station-based evaporative demand data are not available everywhere, but modeled evaporative demand is available nationwide. Peter Goble is working on a ground validation study which compares measured and modeled evaporative demand over irrigated and unirrigated landscapes. The implication of favorable comparisons would be allowing producers to use modeled data directly for irrigation scheduling.

AgriMet:

• The AgriMet program is currently providing technical assistance and data for the WWCRA climate change project affiliated with numerous regions and government entities.

Objective 3.  Promote access to, use of, and further development of monitoring networks and associated value added products to meet the needs of agriculture and resource management in the West.

Colorado:

• The Colorado Climate Center website (climate.colostate.edu) has been redeveloped to promote ease of data access, climate education, and drought information. The user interface is also much friendlier.
• The Colorado Climate Center produces weekly regional drought updates. These updates include communication with the United States Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
• The Colorado Climate Center holds monthly drought update webinars in which the staff engages directly with extension personnel and producers around Colorado. The Climate Center gives an update on meteorologic drought conditions, and the producers report their impacts.
• Inclusion of condition monitoring in CoCoRaHS has improved impact-based drought monitoring. Some of these reports are ingested by the National Drought Mitigation Center’s Drought Impact Reporter.
• CoAgMET precipitation and reference evapotranspiration data are used in Colorado State University’s WISE Irrigation scheduling mobile application for producers.
• The Colorado Climate Center uses in-situ weather station data from networks like CoAgMET and the National Weather Service’s Cooperative Observing (COOP) Network to track trends in climate over time. The Climate Center continues to work with institutions such as the University of Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environment Sciences to understand climate projections, and communicate the associated risks to stakeholders.
• The Climate Center works with the state of Colorado’s Water Availability Task Force to assess current water challenges, and aid conservancy districts and city utilities in planning.

AgriMet: 

• Crop water use charts were generated for each station each day of the growing season, April through mid-October -- a total of almost 10,000 crop water use charts. These charts are specifically tailored to 50 crops grown in the Pacific Northwest
• Crop water use charts, annual evapotranspiration summaries, and daily weather summaries were made available to thousands of users through a home page on the World Wide Web. Much of this information is then re-disseminated by agricultural consultants, irrigation districts, and local newspapers.
• Numerous special data requests were filled, providing high quality agricultural weather and crop water use data to a variety of users.
• Access to all historical weather and crop water use information is available on Reclamation’s AgriMet Home Page on the Internet.
• AgriMet weather data is utilized daily by the Oregon State University Integrated Plant Protection Center for degree day and pest management modeling.
• AgriMet soil temperature data is used by the USDA World Agricultural Outlook Board for assessing agricultural conditions in the Pacific Northwest.
• AgriMet crop consumptive water use information is used by Oregon State University’s Online Irrigation Scheduling Program. This program assists irrigators in efficient irrigation scheduling practices.
• AgriMet is being used as the source of ET information for residential lawn “Smart Controllers” in several locations in the Northwest though Irrisoft’s “Weather Reach” program.
• Reclamation and Kootenai County Soil and Water Conservation District received funding from IDWR and other entities to perform a case study of scientific irrigation scheduling using AgriMet data. This project will also integrate Lakeland School District’s K-12 STEM program.
• A network of six weather stations was installed for the Warm Springs Tribe to look at micro climates and frost pockets for future projects.
• A station was installed at the Entiat National Fish Hatchery to compliment Reclamation’s irrigation well installation throughout the watershed.
• Two stations were installed at the Boise and Twin Falls fairgrounds with a live data feed and display inside the Ag Pavilion during the fair.
• The AgriMet program coordinator made several presentations in 2013 to highlight the importance of agricultural weather data collection and ET modeling in the West. These presentations include:
• December 2016: Jama presented at the Treasure Valley Irrigators Conference to about 100 farmers, extension agents, vendors and agencies.
• March 2017: Jama Hamel presented the AgriMet program to many different federal, state, local and private entities interested in supporting a weather station near Burns, OR.
• Met with OWRD at the BKVO station to educate staff on calibration and maintenance protocol.
• April 2017: Jama presented the AgriMet program to participants in Reclamation’s Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work day.
• May 2017: Met with Utah Climate Center for technical collaboration and training for new employees
• June 2017: Met with CKST and State of Montana for training on our calibration and maintenance procedures

Kentucky:

• Collected multi-site data to calibrate and evaluate model results
• Data-model integration for regional and global simulations
• Improved algorithms to regenerate fine-resolution climate data (precipitation and radiation)

Objective 4.  Facilitate interagency coordination for data collection and maintenance of monitoring sites in the western U.S.

Colorado:

• Remotely sensed vegetative health and soil moisture are included in drought update reports.
• New gridded model products such as the Evaporative Demand Drought Index are used in the Climate Center’s drought updates.
• New experimental seasonal forecasting products are being used in Climate Center research
• Geographic Information Systems software is a fundamental part of data mapping for both CoAgMET and CoCoRaHS.

AgriMet:  Coordinate the development of new climatological analysis technologies such as remote sensing and geographic information systems.

• Graphical quality control procedures using Excel and Visual Basic continue to improve daily data quality control procedures.
• Reclamation and WSU received funding from Reclamation’s Science and Technology Research Program for converting WSU’s Irrigation Scheduler to a smart phone application and enhancing features.
• New CR1000 data loggers and Raven XT cellular modems were implemented for each site. Programming and coordination with the Hydroment program is in operation for input of retrieved data with a data base conversion underway.