NEWA (Northeast Weather Association) 2002: A Year in Review

NEWA maintained the electronic weather network in the 2002 growing season with support from NEWA members and the New York State IPM Program. As a result of the free subscriptions provided by the IPM Program in 2002, NEWA usage rose by 84% compared to 2001. The number of people receiving NEWA information is much larger than that measured by web hits since information from NEWA is used in crop updates and Extension newsletters. The National Weather Service provides weather forecasts for the network and continues to provide new forecast products that NEWA makes available on the web site. The Northeast Regional Climate Center provided links to evapotranspiration maps based on data from their cooperative network. The Climate Center hopes to provide ET information from several of the NEWA sites that are capable of supplying the necessary data needed in the ET calculations in 2003. A cellular modem was successfully installed in the NEWA network and with technical advantages over landline modems including flexibility in logger location and isolation from phone lines, which should reduce damage to equipment caused by lightning