Climate-based Decision Support for Strawberry Growers

Strawberries in North Carolina are a high value crop at an estimated $25 million annually. Unfortunately, strawberry crop yields are easily diminished due to unfavorable or abrupt changes in the weather. For example, ice crystals forming in the plant tissue can destroy or significantly lower yield. However, action can be taken to mitigate crop sensitivities to adverse weather.

Row covers and/or irrigation can be used to insulate and protect strawberry crops against cold weather and freezing. Timing this has to be just right to achieve optimal effectiveness. Laying down covers too late may not provide enough insulation; irrigating too soon before a cold event may lead to additional heat loss by evaporation. Due to the variable nature of weather and climate and local agricultural practices across our state, a crop advisory for one farm may not be appropriate for another. To issue detailed advisories for each cold event requires an immense amount of time and resources. Since 2000, Dr. Barclay Poling, NCSU Dept. of Horticultural Science, has been manually calculating and distributing strawberry crop advisories for strategic regions in North Carolina. By partnering with the State Climate Office of NC, software is currently being developed to automate such strawberry advisories for growers all over North Carolina.

The website will ask strawberry growers several basic questions about the current status of their crop. The inputs needed to make a location-specific strawberry advisory are: 1) farm location, 2) type of groundcover between rows, 3) strawberry varieties being grown, 4) current crop stage, 5) recent irrigation or rainfall amounts, and 6) available row covers and irrigation equipment.

Combined with ECONet and other CRONOS data, the climate office's numerical forecast models and Dr. Poling's advisory logic, a customized advisory will be generated for the grower. Considering the current and forecasted crop risk, the grower’s available row covers and irrigation capacity, an actionable advisory will be generated. The output generated will be simple and intuitive in both maps and charts. The website will be beta tested by select growers in 2009 and released to everyone the following season. This project is made possible by an extension seed grant from the NC State Office of Extension, Engagement and Economic Development, and the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service.

Holiday Climatology

Due to many requests, we developed a holiday climatology for North Carolina. Below are the warmest, coolest and wettest Thanksgiving Days on record for NC:

Visit the new holiday climatology webpage to get weather extremes for other observed holidays.

Drought continues, severe in Western NC

While rain from previous months has helped central and eastern NC, much of western NC continues to experience severe drought conditions. Indeed, for several of the far western counties are now entering their 3rd year of drought. The largest issue for these areas now is water supply - including storage in reservoirs, streams, and groundwater.

Seasonal Outlook: A warmer, drier winter in store for NC

As of November 20, 2008, the Climate Prediction Center's best guidance suggests temperatures will be above normal across North Carolina from January through March, while precipitation amounts are expected to be below normal. These expectations are mainly due to recent temperature and precipitation trends over the area, given that El Niño-neutral conditions are currently in place.