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AgriMet

The Pacific Northwest Cooperative
Agricultural Weather Network

 

AgriMet News

November 4, 2008: The Annual Evapotranspiration Totals and Averages web page has been updated for the 2008 growing season. This table displays the total ET by crop for each weather station for the historical period of record, along with the average ET for each crop.

September 12, 2008: Reclamation's AgriMet program was awarded the annual "Industrial Achievement Award" by the Pacific Northwest Section of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). The award was presented on September 12, at the annual ASABE conference banquet in Boise. Use of AgriMet information provides numerous benefits to agriculture in the Northwest including reducing water and pumping costs to farmers, improving crop yields, and improving efficiency of fertilizer and pesticide use. Reclamation is proud to accept this award.

Summer, 2008: The AgriMet field maintenance team had a busy spring and summer. Numerous upgrades took place at AgriMet weather stations this year, including the installation of a shielded canopy temperature sensor at Lorella, OR, an evaporation pan sensor at Twin Falls, ID, and the installation or upgrade of 25 storage precipitation gages with new load cell weighing technology. For more information about these load cell gages, see the section on AgriMet Precipitation Measurements. The following stations were upgraded from tipping bucket precip gages to load cell storage gages to improve their snowfall catch efficiency: July 22, 2008: The St. Ignatius weather station (SIGM), was slightly relocated to make room for the St. Ignatius airport expansion. The new location is approximately 300 yards WSW of the old location.

April 22, 2008: A new AgriMet weather station was installed near Rathdrum, Idaho. The new station, called Rathdrum Prairie (RTHI), will provide evapotranspiration and climatic data to assist in management of the water resources of the region. The Rathdrum Prairie aquifer provides irrigation water for over 10,000 acres of cropland as well as drinking water for approximately 100,000 people in Kootenai County, Idaho. The Rathdrum Prairie station is supported by Kootenai County, Idaho; the City of Post Falls, Idaho; and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.

January 15, 2008: A detailed explanation of AgriMet's implementation of the 1982 Kimberly-Penman Evapotranspiration Model is now available on the Crop Water Use webpage.

January 9, 2008: A new weather data report is available listing the last TWO days of hourly and 15 minute weather data for an individual station. This new report is included on the Weather Data Page and is called hourlydata2.html.

January 8, 2008: Monthly Average ET values have been updated to included data from 2007. These Reference ET values (ETr) were computed by summing the average daily ETr for the month, for the period of record.

December 17, 2007: The Annual Evapotranspiration Totals and Averages web page has been updated for the 2007 growing season. This table displays the total ET by crop for each weather station for the historical period of record, along with the average ET for each crop.

November 27, 2007: A new AgriMet weather station was installed in the Chamokane basin near Springdale, Washington. The new station, called Chamokane (CHAW), will provide evapotranspiration and climatic information to assist in a hydrologic study of the basin being conducted by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

July 17, 2007: Two new crop coefficient curves have been added to to the AgriMet website: Safflower and Spearmint. For a complete list of crop coefficients, see the AgriMet Crop Coefficients page under the Crop Water Use section of the AgriMet website.

July 9, 2007: The day_data.out file on the AgriMet anonymous FTP server is now updated every hour at 37 minutes past the hour. Previously, this file was updated every four hours, corresponding to the previous 4 hour data transmit protocol. The day_data.out file contains all the hourly and 15 minute weather data for the current day for all AgriMet weather stations. It is one large file, in SHEF format (Standard Hydrological Exchange Format). The file can be found in the day_wx_data folder of the AgriMet Anonymous FTP server: ftp://ftp.usbr.gov/pn/agrimet/day_wx_data/day_data.out

July 6, 2007: A new report has been added to the AgriMet anonymous FTP site. The report is a two day report of all hourly and 15 minute weather data, beginning the previous day and including the most current weather data. This new report is generated and posted on the ftp site every hour at 37 minutes past the hour. The report file name is (station)2day.txt, where (station) is the four letter identifier of the AgriMet station. The reports can be found in the day_wx_data folder of the AgriMet Anonymous FTP server: ftp://ftp.usbr.gov/pn/agrimet/day_wx_data/

July 5, 2007: A new solar radiation parameter - SI - has been added to all AgriMet weather stations. The SI parameter is incremental solar (langleys) for for the last reporting interval (usually an hour, though a few stations report solar on a 15 minute interval). The SI parameter corrects for the hidden rollover value when the cumulative SQ parameter counter resets.

June 6, 2007: The entire AgriMet network has been upgraded to hourly data transmissions, replacing the four hour transmission schedule. Most AgriMet stations transmit their data between 15 and 30 minutes after the top of each hour; the current weather data is posted to the website within a couple of minutes of the receipt of the transmission. For access to current weather data and timing of website updating, see Current Weather Data.

January 22, 2007: AgriMet welcomes Ms. Jama Hamel, student technician to the program. Jama will be responsible for daily quality control of AgriMet weather data, crop water use models, instrument and sensor calibration, and other duties. She can be reached at (208) 378-5203, or by email at jhamel@pn.usbr.gov

August 7, 2006: During the spring and summer calibration and maintenance visits, many more AgriMet weather stations were upgraded from 4 hour transmissions to hourly transmissions. The current weather data for each of the hourly transmitting stations is updated on the web page once an hour shortly after the station transmits. For a complete listing of the hourly transmitting stations and the time of the webpage update, see the Current Weather Data page.

April 10, 2006: The following AgriMet weather stations have been upgraded from 4 hour transmissions to hourly transmissions: This website, and the anonymous ftp site, will be updated hourly with current weather information within a minute or two after the station transmits. For more information on the timing of updates, see the Current Weather Data page.

Many more stations are scheduled for hourly transmission upgrade later this spring.

March 15, 2006: Financial support for the Detroit Lake, Oregon AgriMet weather station has been obtained, and the station will continue with normal operations.

January 31, 2006: The Nampa, Idaho AgriMet station has been upgraded from 4 hour data transmissions to hourly data transmissions. Current weather data will be updated on this website and the Anonymous FTP Site at 26 minutes past the hour. Numerous AgriMet stations will be updated to hourly transmission status in the coming months. For a current list of hourly transmitting stations, see the Current Weather Data web page.

January 18, 2006: Monthly Average ET values have been updated to included data from 2005. These Reference ET values (ETr) were computed by summing the average daily ETr for the month, for the period of record.

December 27, 2005: Three temporary weather stations, installed for water quality monitoring purposes in September, 2002, will be removed. These stations are Detroit Lake, Oregon, Hills Creek Dam, Oregon, and Lookout Point Dam, Oregon. Access to historical weather data will be maintained on the Weather Data page under the "Historical Weather Data Access Section".

December 7, 2005: Crop Coefficients for Hops have been added to the list of AgriMet Crop Coefficients. Please contact the AgriMet Program Coordinator if you would like this crop added to your station of interest.

November 29, 2005: Financial support for the Bandon, Oregon AgriMet weather station has been obtained, and the station will continue with normal operations.

November 14, 2005: Financial support for the Bandon, Oregon AgriMet weather station has been withdrawn by the local sponsor. Current weather data will be discontinued from this website on January 1, 2006, and the station will be physically removed in the spring of 2006 unless replacement financial support can be found. For more information, click here.

September 27, 2005: Station installation dates have been added to two of the historical weather data access pages: Historical Archive Data Access - Column Delimited and Water Year Report Format Data Access. This allows users to choose a begin date for historical data access according to the available data for each station.

June 2, 2005: A new webpage describing Agrimet Precipitation Measurements has been added to the AgriMet website. This new page is linked from the Weather Data webpage. This new page describes the type of precipitation gages used at AgriMet weather stations, how these gages operate, and how various AgriMet precipitation parameters are computed.

May 4, 2005: Soil temperatures were installed at 4" and 8" depths at the Christmas Valley AgriMet station. The sensors are installed in non-irrigated soil.

January 21, 2005: Monthly Average ET values are now available for each AgriMet station. These Reference ET values (ETr) were computed by summing the average daily ETr for the month.

January 13, 2005: Most of the "top level" pages on the AgriMet website were revised with the new "look and feel" described in the paragraph below. At the same time, there were several other changes and enhancements implemented in the website, including:



November 5, 2004: As part of Reclamation's new Visual Identity project, the AgriMet website will be getting a new "look and feel". All Reclamation pages will share the same common layout in an effort to help web users easily navigate and find the information they need. Every effort will be made to avoid changing URLs (webpage addresses) and the AgriMet navigation bar items (previously on the top of each page) will appear on the left side. These changes will be phased in over the next couple of months, beginning with AgriMet's top level index page. For a look at the new format, click here. We welcome your comments and suggestions.

October 19, 2004: A new AgriMet Station was installed in Beatty, Oregon (BATO). This station will provide evapotranspiration and climatic information to assist in irrigation water management in the Sprague River basin (a sub basin of the Klamath River). This station is sponsored by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Reclamation's Klamath Basin office in Klamath Falls.

March 15-20, 2004: Most agencies in the United States Department of Interior, including the Bureau of Reclamation, were disconnected from the Internet due to court order. During that period, the AgriMet web page and anonymous FTP site were unavailable. These servers have been restored under a temporary stay of the court order. In the event that these services are disrupted again, AgriMet users should make note of the AgriMet program coordinator's phone number: (208) 378-5283. Alternate arrangements will be made to provide AgriMet information to users. For more information about the court order, visit the Department of Interior Website at www.doi.gov or the Department of Justice at www.usdoj.gov/civil/cases/cobell/appellate.htm.

January 1, 2004: The satellite transmitters supplied by Seimac, Inc. all failed on or about January 1, 2004. Seimac Engineers believe the problem may be related to the leap year algorithm in the transmitter firmware. Seimac is working to resolve the problem and will supply a fix as soon as possible. The fix will probably require a site visit to each of the affected stations, so full resolution of the problem could require a few weeks to implement. The affected stations are: We apologize for any incovenience. The stations will be brought back on line as soon as possible after receiving a fix from Seimac, Inc.

October 22, 2003: The Manson, Washington (MASW) AgriMet station will be off the air for 3-4 months while the Lake Chelan Reclamation District replaces power transformers that supply power to the station.

September 19,2003: The old macintosh webserver located at Reclamation's Pacific Northwest Regional Office will no longer provide http service outside of the Reclamation network. The AgriMet website has been moved to www.usbr.gov/agrimet/ to improve security.

June 4, 2003: The Dee Flat and Pine Grove, Oregon AgriMet stations were upgraded from "frost control" stations to full Evapotranspiration stations by the addition of a solar radiation sensor. Precipitation gages were also added to each of these stations. Pine Grove was relocated approximately 50 yards west of its previous location; Dee Flat was relocated approximately 1.1 miles NNE of the previous location. Crop water use information will now be available for both of these stations.

June 1, 2003: AgriMet's Irrigation Guide has been revised and updated. The irrigation guide contains information on irrigation scheduling, soil water storage capacities, root zone depths, management allowable depletions, irrigation system efficiencies, nozzle discharge vs. pressure, irrigation application computation (inches/hour), and computation of pump efficiency.

Summer, 2003: During the annual calibration and maintenance visits this year, each AgriMet weather station will have an updated datalogger program installed which adds a higher resolution average wind speed parameter. Previously, hourly average wind speed was computed from the telemetered cumulative wind run value in order to shorten the length of the transmit message. Now, average wind speed will be computed on-site every fifteen minutes, with resolution to the hundredths of a mile per hour.

May 5, 2003: The Goldendale, Washingston AgriMet station (GOLW) has been upgraded to hourly data transmission status. Weather information will be updated on the current weather data webpage every hour at 40 minutes past the hour.

May 1, 2003: A new AgriMet Station was installed in Bend, Oregon (BEWO). This station will provide turfgrass evapotranspiration information to assist in urban lawn irrigation scheduling. This station is sponsored by the City of Bend, Department of Public Works.

February 13, 2003: The filename extensions for all references to Historical ET Summaries have been changed from ".dat" to ".txt". Some computers have a different program associated with the .dat extensions which caused problems for some users. This change should allow your browser to correctly open and display the Evapotranspiration Summaries.

February 12, 2003: The AgriMet Anonymous FTP Server has moved to meet new Department of Interior computer security requirements. The new ftp site is ftp://ftp.usbr.gov/pn/agrimet. For more information about the anonymous FTP site, see the readme file: ftp://ftp.usbr.gov/pn/agrimet/Readme/README.TXT

February 5, 2003: The wind "cap" used in the 1982 Kimberly-Penman evapotranspiration equation by the AgriMet system has been removed. Previously, this cap limited the total wind run to 150 miles per day. Based on the recommendation of the author of the 1982 Kimberly Penman procedure, this limit has been removed to allow higher ET values during windy conditions.

January 29, 2003: Definitions of crop start, cover and terminate dates used in AgriMet Crop Water Use Charts are now available on the AgriMet website.

January 22, 2003: The Historical Archive Weather Data page has been revised to a checkbox form to make multiple weather parameter selection easier.

January 21, 2003: The Agency Lake, Oregon weather station (AGKO) (north of Klamath Falls) has been officially added to the AgriMet website. Originally installed in May, 2000 to collect weather data for USBR operations, we are now making the information available through the various weather related pages on the AgriMet website.

January 6, 2003: A new data retrieval form has been added to the AgriMet Weather webpage. This new form allows retrieval of hourly weather data without the "Missing" entry for all the intervening 15 minute records. For hourly AND 15 minute data retrieval, click on the Hourly and 15 Minute webpage.

December 24, 2002: The Odessa, Washington AgriMet station (ODSW) now has soil temperature data available at the 1,2,4,8,20, and 40 inch depths.

December 13, 2002: Annual ET Totals and Averages are now updated to include 2002 values.

October, 2002: New higher resolution incremental solar parameters (both global - SI and shadowband - SI2) were added to the Picabo (PICI), Parma (PMAI), and Twin Falls (TWFI) AgriMet stations. These parameters were added to the Madras (MRSO) station previously, and will be added to the Hermiston station (HRMO) in early November, 2002.

September 26, 2002: Three new AgriMet weather stations were installed at US Army Corps of Engineers (COE) reservoirs in the Willamette River basin, Oregon. These stations will collect weather data needed for water quality modeling in response to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Biological Opinion for Columbia and Snake River operations. The three stations are: Detroit Lake (DTRO), Hills Creek Dam (HCKO), and Lookout Point Dam (LKPO).

August 21, 2002: The filename extensions for all references to Crop Water Use Charts has been changed from ".dat" to ".txt". Some computers have a different program associated with the .dat extensions which caused problems for some users. This change should allow your browser to correctly open and display the crop water use charts.

July 17, 2002: New AgriMet Station installed at Silcott Island, Washington (on the Snake River/Lower Granite Reservoir near Clarkston) (SILW). This station will collect weather data needed for water quality modeling in response to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Biological Opinion for Columbia and Snake River operations.

May 20, 2002: The Afton, Wyoming AgriMet station (AFTY) was relocated approximately 1/4 mile to the west due to the expansion of the Lincoln County Fairground. The new location has improved exposure for wind data collection.

April 24, 2002: The Weather Data Webpage has been improved to provide easier access to the different types of AgriMet weather data available: Archive Weather Data for the last 5 days or 10 days; hourly and 15 minute (dayfiles) weather data (both current and for the last 8 days), and access to historical weather data (both archive and dayfiles). In addition, the station lists for access to these weather data files have been ordered by state.

April 20, 2002: Seven new AgriMet stations have been installed in the Snake and Columbia River basins for water quality modeling data collection. These stations were installed in response to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Biological Opinion for Columbia and Snake River operations. The new stations are: Bonneville Dam, WA (BNDW); Chief Joseph Dam, WA (CJDW); Grand Coulee Dam, WA (GCDW); Seven Bays Marina, WA (FDR Lake) (SBMW); Kettle Falls, WA (KFLW); Lake Bryan - Rice Bar, WA (LBRW); Dworshak - Dent Acres, ID (DENI). These stations transmit on an hourly basis, and the current weather data files are updated immediately after each station transmits to improve the timeliness of current weather observations.

March 1, 2002: Internet access re-established for the Bureau of Reclamation, and the AgriMet web page is available once again!

January 17, 2002: New Hourly and 15 minute data access available on the AgriMet website for all stations for the entire period of record. Look under the "Weather Data" tab on the navigation bar. NOTE: Historical Dayfiles data access retrieves both hourly and 15 minute weather observations for the selected station, time period, and parameters, returning 96 records for each day selected. File sizes and download time vary accordingly, so please consider the potential volume of data when you choose your time period.

December 5, 2001: Internet access was disconnected for the entire Department of Interior by Federal Court order. This action removed public access to the AgriMet website as well as email into and out of Reclamation and other Department of Interior agencies. For more information, visit the Department of Interior website at www.doi.gov

December 3, 2001: Annual Evapotranspiration Totals and Averages by crop available for all stations for the entire period of record, updated with 2001 growing season totals.

October 15, 2001: New Historical Archive Data Access in Water Year Report Format. This format is similar to the USGS Water Year Report and provides monthly maximum, minimum, and average statistics for the chosen parameter.

August 22, 2001: AgriMet Crop Coefficients now available on the Web: Graphical Format, Single Text File, and Information about Crop Coefficients

August 8, 2001: New AgriMet Station installed in Eureka, Nevada (EURN).

May 11, 2001: New AgriMet Station installed in Baker Valley, Oregon (BKVO) about 2 miles southwest of Haines.

March 30, 2001: New AgriMet Station installed in Lorella, Oregon (LORO) about 30 miles southeast of Klamath Falls.

March 27, 2001: New AgriMet Station installed in Fallon, Nevada (FALN).

March 6, 2001: Reference Evapotranspiration (ETr) added to Crop Water Use Charts and to ET Summary tables.

February 16, 2001: Annual Evapotranspiration Totals and Averages by crop available for all stations for the entire period of record.

February 16, 2001: Barometric Pressure sensor added to the Hood River, Oregon (HOXO) AgriMet Station.

November 8, 2000: One, two, three, and four/five day Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts (QPF) from the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) added to the links section, under "Weather Information".

September 12, 2000: The Worden, Oregon (WRDO) AgriMet station (south of Klamath Falls) was relocated approximately 2 miles south for better representation of frost conditions in the Klamath Lake basin. In addition, a ground level air temperature sensor and cell phone was added for direct dial-in for real time weather data. The cell phone number is (541) 891-0689.

Spring/Summer, 2000: The AgriMet weather station network received upgraded dataloggers (Cambell Scientific CR10x) and satellite transmitters (Telonics TGT-1). This new equipment increases the reliability of the network and enhances opportunites for future enhancements.

April 19, 2000: New AgriMet Station installed in Worden, Oregon (WRDO), approximately 13 miles South of Klamath Falls.

February 23, 2000: Evapotranspiration graphs now available for each AgriMet station for entire period of record.

January 25, 2000: Current weather data now available for each AgriMet weather station, updated every 4 hours.

January 25, 2000: Added explanation of hourly weather data flags to the bottom of Hourly Weather Parameter Code Key

January 12, 2000: Evapotranspiration Summaries are now available for each AgriMet station for the entire historical period of record.

November 8, 1999: Last 8 days of hourly weather data now available for each AgriMet weather station, updated daily.

September 28, 1999: New AgriMet Station installed in Brookings, Oregon (BRKO), located at the Easter Lily Research Center Southeast of Brookings, Oregon

September 7, 1999: Updated AgriMet Sensors and Equipment listing and included links to manufacturers.

August 3, 1999: Updated the Station Parameter Listings to include types of precipitation gages at each station.

July 15, 1999: Updated the Irrigation Information Links to include additional sites.

July 7, 1999: Added Daily Evapotranspiration Graphs for all AgriMet stations. These graphs are updated each morning at 6:00 am Mountain Time.

July 7, 1999: Added Photos of AgriMet weather stations to the Program Information Section.

July 7, 1999: Added explanation of Growing Degree Days to the Program Information Section. and to the Weather Data Section.

April 1, 1999: New AgriMet Home Page!
This revised home page includes a navigation bar and improved organization of products and information. Primary products (weather data and crop water use charts) did NOT change locations, so users will not have to re-bookmark.

March 31, 1999: New AgriMet Station installed in Klamath Falls, Oregon (KFLO), located at the Klamath Experiment Station, southwest of Klamath Falls, Oregon.

October 22, 1998: New AgriMet Station installed at Aurora, Oregon (ARAO), located at the North Willamette Research and Extension Center, 15 miles south of Portland, Oregon.

September 30, 1998: The AgriMet system has completed testing of the Year 2000 compliant software (Y2K) and it is now installed on the AgriMet computer.

June 6, 1998: New AgriMet Station installed near Deer Lodge, Montana (DRLM).

April 30, 1998: New AgriMet Station installed in Hereford, Oregon (HRFO).