Cornell adds online drought tool for farmers.
ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell’s Climate Smart Farming program has added a fifth online tool – the New York State/Northeast Drought Atlas – to help farmers adapt to a warming world.
The application joins the Cornell-developed Apple Stage/Freeze Damage Probability, the Grape Hardiness and Freeze Risk, the Water Deficit Calculator and the Growing Degree Day Calculator in Climate Smart Farming’s toolbox.
“The climate extremes are becoming more acute, and that certainly affects farmers,” said Allison Chatrchyan, director of the Cornell Institute for Climate Smart Solutions (CICSS).
“In 2016, a large portion of the Northeast saw drought conditions for the entire growing season.
Now farmers can use a set of free tools at the Climate Smart Farming website to make more informed decisions about many agricultural practices, Lambert said.
Concurrently, with introducing this new application, there is a free, quarterly New York State/Northeast Drought Atlas newsletter that provides practical information on drought situations.
In the March newsletter, the scientists predicted drought conditions would end this summer.
To create the apple freeze, grape hardiness and growing degree day applications, Art DeGaetano, professor of atmospheric science and director, Northeast Regional Climate Center, worked with programmer Rick Moore and the CICSS team.
“Last year, we didn’t get enough water.