Spring Frost Program
With the calendar flipped to March, we’re officially at the beginning of growing season. Back again this year is the Spring Frost Program, a daily frost forecast tailored to growers in central and eastern Washington.
The forecast is broken down into two regions: Yakima Valley/Central Basin and Wenatchee/Okanogan. Each region will feature a short term and mid-range forecast discussion as well as daily overnight minimum temperature forecasts for several key stations in each region. Extended outlooks will be released every Tuesday and Friday. These forecasts will run in tandem with the AWN Weekly Outlook which is published every Monday.
Growers are encouraged to help our forecasters by submitting frost and bud stage reports. These reports are for internal use only, but can be of big help by highlighting warm or cold areas and give an idea of which buds are developing fastest or slowest. Visit the Spring Frost Program webpage to submit your reports this season.
Weather with AWN
New in 2024, AgWeatherNet will be hosting monthly Zoom meetings for any interested stakeholders to learn about a feature of the AWN web portal. The first Weather with AWN in February was a resounding success, highlighting some of the new and most popular features of the AWN web portal, and previewing the Spring Frost Program.
The next Weather with AWN will be Thursday, March 28, at 3:30 p.m. and will discuss our Tier 3 Private Station Program. We will go over the associated benefits of this program, including near real-time quality assurance/control, unified dashboard for your organization to manage the stations, and custom alerts for site-specific decision support. Our field team will also discuss site selection, preventive maintenance strategies, and the approval process for private stations.
Visit the News section on our website for the link to join.
AWN Models
With the growing season getting started, we wanted to highlight one of the most popular models on our web portal this time of year. The apple Pollen Tube Growth Model usually sees a lot of web traffic March through May. If you have any questions or concerns about setting up the model to suit your needs, please use the contact information below, our team will be happy to help!
Contact
Nathan Santo Domingo
Field Meteorologist, AgWeatherNet
nathan.santodomingo@wsu.edu
Funding and Acknowledgements
The AgWeatherNet Spring Frost Program is supported in part by Washington State Tree Fruit Association and a grant from WSDA SCBG Program (2021-2024).
