Enviro-weather news and station updates

Please welcome Beth Bishop, new Enviroweather Coordinator

The Enviroweather project solicited interest from current MSU staff, who may be interested in our open Enviroweather Coordinator position. We obtained a number of queries, and the Enviroweather staff interviewed two strong candidates.

I am pleased to announce that Beth Bishop, Department of Entomology, will be joining the project as Enviroweather Coordinator. She will begin half-time on Sept. 2 and full-time the first of the new year, allowing Beth to transition from her current role in the department. Beth's background is in entomology and vegetable systems, she also has a strong background in extension education. Beth also has been active in weather-based IPM research and currently has a project that involves Enviroweather.

Please join the Enviroweather staff in welcoming Beth; she can be contacted at bishopb@msu.edu. Many thanks to all supporting the project and making suggestions on the position.

Posted by Mike Brewer - 8/28/08

New station in Leslie in parnership with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center

A station near Leslie, in Ingham County, has been added to the network. The station is located at the LaVern Eldred Farm and will be used for bioenergy research.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 8/20/08

New station in Charlotte in parnership with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center

A station near Charlotte, in Eaton County, has been added to the network. The station is located at Windswept Farms and will be used for bioenergy research.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 8/13/08

The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center supports new Enviro-weather stations

Five new Enviro-weather stations will be added to the network in support of research on prairie and perennial grass ecosystems by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. The weather data from these stations will be of benefit in studying cellulose yield in these emerging farming systems. New stations will be located in Barry, Cass, Eaton, Ingham, and Kalamazoo Counties.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 8/7/08

Enviro-weather in the news

Mike Brewer was interviewed on WILX local news on 7/11/08 about Enviro-weather helping farmers keep production costs

David N. Goodman (The Associated Press) wrote a story about farmers' use of weather stations, focusing on Enviro-weather, the Enviro-weather cooperators at Westview Orchards, and Washington State's AgWeatherNet. down. Key news outlets carried the story such as the New York Times, CNNMoney.com, The Washington Post, Forbes, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, and the Baltimore Sun.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 7/14/08

Enviro-weather in Detroit Free Press

Mike Wendland, Detroit Free Press technology columnist recently wrote about Enviro-weather's use of cellphone technology to speed delivery of information to our users.

Posted by Joy Landis - 6/22/08

New model on Enviro-weather: Sooty blotch and flyspeck disease

Apple and pear producers have a new indicator for disease on Enviro-weather. This report uses MAWN/Enviro-weather stations to tally long periods of wetness and the potential for these fungal diseases. A fungicide wash-off approximation is also included.

Read more about the model in the Fruit CAT Alert. We thank the fruit workgroup for working on this model with us.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 6/17/08

Weather station status

The station at Hudson is online. Several stations in NW Michigan have been converted to hourly update cycles.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 5/12/08

New weather station in Coldwater

A new station in Coldwater was made possible with the help of many donors in the Coldwater area. Thank you to all Enviro-weather supporters, including Roberta Osborne, County Extension Director, who led the fundraising effort, and the Bloom family, who are hosting the station. We are looking forward to developing more applications to meet the needs of local users with the help of MSUE personnel Bruce MacKellar and Lyndon Kelley and other interested parties.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 5/7/08

New weather station in Keeler

Thanks to a generous donation from Kevin Winkel of Winkel Orchards, a new station has been established at Keeler. It is just a few miles from our station at Hartford, and we anticipate these stations will be useful in understanding the critial role of microclimates in Michigan.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 4/28/08

Weather station status

The station at Hudson is offline until technical issues are resolved. Contact ewxserv@msu.edu for further details.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 4/26/08

New weather station at Romeo

A new station has been added to the Michigan Automated Weather Network at Westview Orchards in Romeo, Michigan. This station is located at a farm market and orchard; it will be useful in educational efforts of the farm as well as to producers and homeowners in the area.

Several newspaper articles covered the installation of the station:

Thank you to Westview Orchards and Bob Tritten (MSUE) for their support of MAWN/Enviro-weather.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 4/3/08

New station in Berrien County

Enviro-weather users in Berrien County now have access to weather information from a new weather station located near Berrien Springs on the Bob Pagel Vineyard. Thanks to National Grape for financial support and the hard work of the MAWN/Enviro-weather staff, the new station has been added to the Michigan Automated Weather Network and the Enviro-weather information website.

Posted by Mark Trent - 4/3/08

Fundraising success in Branch County recognized in MSU Spotlight

Roberta Osborne, Branch County Extension Director, worked with Steve Marquie, Mark Trent, Bruce MacKellar, Lyndon Kelley, and Jeff Andresen to demonstrate MAWN/Enviro-weather technology and raise the funds for a new station to be located in Branch County. Please read the article in the MSUE Spotlight.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 4/3/2008

Enviro-weather provides latest weather observations at Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station Field Stations

The Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station's website now displays recent weather observations at nearby MAWN/Enviro-weather stations for:

These weather stations are some of the oldest in our network; we thank the MAES and station cooperators for their support in building the network over the years.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 4/3/2008

Weather station at the MSU Kellogg Biological Station added to the MAWN/Enviroweather system

Thanks to the hard work of Jim Brown and Steve Marquie with the MAWN/Enviro-weather staff, Sven Bohm at the MSU Kellogg Biological Station (MSUKBS) and Sara Stuby, Southwest Regional Director for MSU Extension, another weather station has been added to the Michigan Automated Weather Network at MSUKBS near Hickory Corners, Michigan. The station is named "Hickory Corners (Kellogg Biological Station)" on the Enviro-weather website. This station, incorporated into Enviro-weather's available stations, will provide users timely weather data and valuable model results for Southern Barry, Northeast Kalamazoo, and Northwest Calhoun Counties. Because of incompatibility issues this station will not be able provide wind data at this time and therefore cannot provide potential evapotranspiration.

Posted by Mark Trent - 1/24/08

New weather station at Arlene added to MAWN

Thanks to the hard work of cooperators in the northern Lower Peninsula and MAWN/Enviro-weather staff, a new station has been added to the Michigan Automated Weather Network at Dutchman Tree Farms in Arlene, Michigan. This station, incorporated into Enviro-weather's available stations, will provide growers, foresters, and homeowners in Cadillac and Wexford Counties with timely weather data and valuable model results.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 1/7/08

Station data updates moved to winter schedule

Due to the decreased solar power available in the winter, several stations have moved to the winter update schedule. The data will be retrieved every three hours, rather than every hour, until the growing season begins.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 1/7/08

New tutorial gives an introduction and how-to

A short video clip, "Getting Started with Enviro-weather", created by Steve Marquie and Mark Trent, showcases some of the features of the Enviro-weather site.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 11/19/07

Quick weather data access provided on Enviro-weather home page

Rolling over a weather station location on the map on the Enviro-weather home page gives the most recent weather data at the station.

Posted by Tracy Aichele - 11/19/07

First Enviro-Weather Report

The Enviro-weather staff is excited about the activities and accomplishments of the project during its first year. One indicator of grower and other public use of the system is a 100+% increase in daily visits to both the Enviro-weather website and a partner website (GDDTracker) over the past 12 months. Continued growth of the physical components of the system will be pursued to provide more complete spatial coverage of environmental monitoring across the across the state (we are planning a major expansion with a new DNR partnership). Continuing development of products will remain a fundamental and integral objective of the system in responding to Michigan’s dynamic agriculture and natural resource systems (the commodity pages and workgroup are the foundation to this effort).

Full report available for download

Posted by Mark Trent - 11/6/07