Weather Notes
Three-Day
Forecasts
The Weather Forecast section provides an overview of future weather conditions and is obtained from the National Weather Services National Blend Of Models Text Products Page. This source was selected because 1) It provides fairly accurate predictions 2) They provide specific forecasts for 22 locations (regional airports) located throughout Maryland 3) the wind forecasts are particularly helpful when timing pesticide applications.
Daily
Weather
Statistics
Daily Disease Alerts relies on weather data collected by personal weather stations that relay collected data to the Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP), a public-private partnership that shares the collected data with homeland security and weather services (like us!). Several MGGA members are part of this group, and we could all benefit from more - learn more here.
A Note About
Accuracy
The GrapeCast disease forecast models require 24 hours of data to function properly. Unfortunately many factors are constantly plotting against the upload/download process. The chain of transfers goes like this: The source (remote weather station/base station/computer/internet connection) to CWOP then to MADIS (Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System) and finally to here.
As circuitous as this route is, it amazing that most station data (95%+) makes the trip. But when it doesn't, missing data is filled in, with temperature, humdity and wind speed being interpolated, and precipitation left blank. This obviously affects the accuracy of the Disease Alerts, and this is noted on each stations page in the Archived Stats Section under ‘Hours of Data’. Please refer to this if in doubt.