Since the UGA Weather Network is down for the next few days due to the tornado that moved through Griffin yesterday, here is some information on alternate sources of weather information that growers might find useful.
Since the UGA Weather Network is down for a few days due to the loss of power and internet at the Griffin campus, it will not be available for frost protection activities this weekend. Here are some resources that your growers can use to help prepare for irrigation or other frost protection measures. However, keep in mind that for the entire state of Georgia, there is at least a 90% chance that there will be at least one more frost even this year (after all, it is only mid-January), so the growers will need to weigh whether or not this is a good use of water and fuel. You can see freeze maps at http://agroclimate.org/tools/freeze-risk-probabilities/. As we go into neutral conditions in the next couple of months, the chance of a late frost does increase somewhat.
For sources of information on hourly weather forecasts, please use the two blog posts below to help growers find local forecast conditions for their location:
The graph below was generated using the first link for Alma, GA. Note that Sunday morning the temperature gets down into the 20s for a couple of hours. The forecasts have air temperature and dew point temperature but not wet-bulb temperature. You can estimate wet-bulb using the 1/3 rule. The wet-bulb is approximately 1/3 of the way between the air temperature and the dew point, so if air temperature is 32 and dew point is 23, then the wet-bulb would be approximately 32-(32-23)/3=29 F. More information about freeze protection can be found from Bulletin 1479 at https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B1479&title=Commercial%20Freeze%20Protection%20for%20Fruits%20and%20Vegetables
If growers do not have local thermometers, then they need to pick up something quick. Most hardware stores should have infrared hand-held thermometers used to test HVAC equipment, and other thermometers should be available as well. I suspect most producers already have thermometers available.
I hope this helps. We expect to get the UGA Weather Network back online in a few days once power and internet are restored to the Griffin campus. I will send a notice to the EXTALL list when it is available again.
Pam Knox
Director, UGA Weather Network
