Weather & Pest Monitoring Forecasting
UMass is a member of the Network for Environment and Weather Applications (NEWA), a web-based weather and pest reporting and forecasting system. This was developed by the New York State Integrated Pest Management program, and uses a network of weather monitoring stations. These are located at farms and airports and report hourly temperatures, daily max and min T, rainfall, relative humidity and hours > 90% RH, and windspeed. These data points then run through models that predict key events like when an insect pest will become active or when a disease might develop. Forecasts and alerts for insect and disease pests of fruits and vegetables are published. For example, it has models for cabbage and onion maggot, late blight of tomato and potato, apple scab and fire blight, and grape diseases. There are links to other forecasting website such as cucurbit downy mildew. It also reports out the growing degree day (GDD) accumulation by day, month and season at two base temperatures; 50 F and 40 F, along with GDD models for pest flights. This is a terrific resource for farmers, easy to navigate and updated daily. It’s great to just pick a weather station and get degree days, a whole weather report for the previous month, or a forecast for a specific pest.
The UMass Extension Fruit program has taken the lead to establish this MA connection to NEWA, and it will benefit both fruit and vegetable growers. UMass is working to add additional on-farm stations, and to add leaf wetness to the weather parameters so that certain disease models such as tomato early blight can be included in the MA network.
According to the NEWA website, NEWA users reported that they can save, on average, $19,500 per year in spray costs and prevent, on average, $264,000 per year in crop loss as a direct result of using NEWA pest forecast models.
2021 NEWA Impact Report for Massachustts
2020 NEWA Impact Report for Massachusetts
map of 2018-20 NEWA users in MA
2019 NEWA Impact Report for Massachusetts
You can access this data and the associated pest models at www.newa.cornell.edu.
NEW in 2020! OrchardWatch
NEW in 2022! NEWA 3.0 - what you need to know
Weather Data, UMass Cold Spring Orchard Research & Education Center, Belchertown, MA 01007
Current conditions, UMass Orchard, Belchertown, MA
Alternative current conditions, UMass Cold Spring Orchard, Belchertown, MA
More alternative current weather conditions, UMass Cold Spring Orchard, Belchertown, MA https://ambientweather.net/dashboard/289561b55d73eee02444934b237fba34/
OrchardWatch South current conditions, UMass Cold Spring Orchard, Belchertown, MA
OrchardWatch North current conditions, UMass Cold Spring Orchard, Belchertown, MA
Other Locations
Current conditions, Carlson Orchards, Harvard, MA
Current conditions, Headwater Cider, Hawley, MA
Current conditions, Bartlett Orchard, Richmond, MA
Current conditions, Tougas Family Farm, Northboro, MA
Current conditions, Clarkdale Fruit Farm, Deerfield, MA
Current conditions, Park Hill Orchard, Easthampton, MA
Current conditions, Weld Hill (Arnold Arboretum), Jamaica Plain, MA
Current conditions, Barnstable County Farm, MA
Current conditions, UMass Crop and Livestock Farm, South Deerfield, MA
Current conditions, Wards Berry Farm, Sharon, MA
Current Conditions, C.N. Smith Farm, East Bridgewater, MA
Current Conditions, Foppema's Farm, Northbridge, MA
Current conditions, East Falmouth, MA (ma_efal nwon)
Current conditions, Middleborough, MA (ma_midd nwon)
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Farmer Dave's, Dracut, MA https://ambientweather.net/dashboard/ae7ec26f58f944a5f4eac3130ff6af8a
Doe Orchards, Harvard, MA https://rainwise.net/weather/doe01451
Cider Hill Farm, Amesbury, MA https://ambientweather.net/dashboard/6f0a5f4a362995612438439053decb83
Clark Bros. Orchards, Ashfield, MA http://rainwise.net/weather/mas
Nicewicz Farm, Bolton, MA https://ambientweather.net/dashboard/7b8cce266023d39984bedf733bd046a7
Kosinski Farms, Westfield, MA http://rainwise.net/weather/mwe
Shelburne Farm, Stow, MA http://rainwise.net/weather/shelburnefarm
Honey Pot Hill Orchard, Stow, MA http://rainwise.net/weather/mst
Red Apple Farm, Phillipston, MA https://ambientweather.net/dashboard/3b6e1a2609ce6146d583725041921466
Russell Orchards, Ipswich, MA https://rainwise.net/weather/RussellOrchards
Ragged Hill Orchard, West Brookfield, MA https://ambientweather.net/dashboard/79b83120ba439493601cf1f1bf9c6a69
Sauchuk Farm, Plympton, MA https://www.rainwise.net/weather/Sauchuk1
Sholan Farms, Leominster, MA https://rainwise.net/weather/mle
Parlee Farms, Tyngsboro, MA https://rainwise.net/weather/mty
Lakeville, MA (mla newa)
NOTE: effective app. October 1, 2010, UMass Cold Spring Orchard weather data is being hosted by the Network for Environment and Weather Applications (NEWA).
Looking for some archived weather data for UMass Cold Spring Orchard back to 2001? Check this out.
