This project continues funding of the UGA Georgia Weather Network, formerly the Automated Environmental Monitoring Network. Thie proposal will assist in supporting the 88 automated weather environmental monitoring stations located throughout the state. Weather data gathered and disseminated by the Georgia Weather Network provide a valuable resource to soybean producers in the State of Georgia.

- Expand the network by adding stations in areas that would benefit from a more local weather station. In the past years we added Glennville (late 2020) and Sparks (summer 2021) and relocated the Alpharetta station to improve siting. We are looking for sites for additional stations near Columbus and Milledgeville.
- Change the averaging period for data to 5 minute increments, as well as disseminating the data at this frequency. In 2021, we completed upgrading the modems to handle faster communications to avoid issues with the shut-down of 3G cell phone service in January 2022.
- Move all data handling and archiving operations onto the “cloud” with Amazon Web Services. Restructure the data to be processed and reside in a relational database (presently all data is stored in text files). The migration is expected to occur on January 1, 2022 but could be later if we are delayed in hiring a web programmer. We were unable to hire one in 2021 due to a UGA hiring freeze. This will provide even greater reliability as the web site and data availability will no longer be affected by power outages and internet failures on the UGA Griffin campus. A web programmer will be working with the new database to improve the development of crop-specific tools such as a solar radiation tool to accumulate sunshine units. We welcome any suggestions for tools from soybean growers which would further improve their management capabilities.

- This project will provide support for weather station technical personnel to maintain and repair sensors, and other tasks such as calibration and replacement of station components. Frequent and regular maintenance of this network of stations provides high quality data to producers. It will also support a programmer with updating the website and developing versions of the website for use on mobile devices.
- We also aim to purchase new stations and increase the density of the network.

Updated November 28, 2023:

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The density of weather stations means that farmers can usually find more local, and hence more relevant information, than can be obtained through National Weather service weather stations. However, there are still areas in Georgia, even in the more agricultural part of the State where additional stations would be beneficial. By adding stations to the network, we would increase the number of farmers who could make use of weather data from the network, with economic benefit to those farmers.