10/28/2003
Our server crashed yesterday and configuring the backup server took a bit longer than expected. It took between 4 and 24 hours to fix most applications (still checking and configuring...). Sorry about the inconvenience - Len
8/15/2003
A new advanced system for estimation of missing temperature data has been installed and is being evaluated. See weaexp.html for some details about this "climate map-based" method, which we hope will be an improvement over the "time average" method, which remains in use for cases when the new method does not pass certain quality assurance tests.
7/31/2003
A new color legend was created for DD maps, which may be yet be revised a bit. Same for DD deviations maps, hopefully plus and minus DDs from normals will now be easier to interpret from the legend. Also, we added a more critical quality assurance check for DD maps so they will show fewer anomalies.
6/20/2003
Two new PAWS stations added: Nooksack High School and Lynden WA, thanks to PAWS and Todd Murray, WSU Extension IPM, Whatcom Co. WA.
Improved DD maps for 5 states - the downscaling has been rejecting the border areas due to less data available there, so I expanded a buffer zone around each state. This does not fix the problem in coastal areas, but otherwise improves these maps.
The Dalles Weather Network data is now coming in again, so it may be soon that we have it available.
3/22/2003
Added a page for daily DD maps of all 5 NW states. Other misc changes and updates.The Dalles weather network has had problems delivering data and we dont know how soon they will be fixed.
3/3/2003
The "hi resolution" downscaling program linked to the NW Degree-day Mapmaker program has been calibrated and now gives higher resolution degree-day maps. Use this if you intend to zoom in on local areas (however it remains experimental so beware of results). Remember to start by making the degree-day map only for a part of the state (such as NW Oregon). Otherwise the program will take too much time. If you dont want to take the time to try this feature, here are examples of non-downscaled and downscaled images of Hood River Oregon. The downscaled image follows the terrain much more closely and reflects local effects of elevation on degree-day accumulations.
2/26/2003
The NW Degree-day Mapmaker program has been updated and linked from the home page. It was formerly only available from the state daily DD map pages. This has been intended as the 5+ state version to replace the Oregon DD Mapmaker, but has none of the local growing regions, so the Oregon only site will remain available.
They each now include a 2 step process (first select options and calculate a new DD map, second click to open the GRASSLinks interface to the map. While this adds a step (the old way returned a thumbnail image of a larger GIF map), now the map is fully interactive for zooming, panning, and querying the map and related data (and DD calculator for the nearest site queried).
There is also an optional link (below the GRASSLinks link) to open a second browser window with the previously selected legend for interpreting colors/DD values. This should help in reading the map in addition to querying DDs at a specific location within the GRASSLinks interface. Try it out some time. Also, if you need a historical average degree-day map for up to a 9 state area, we have 1400+ files of average temperature for computing these maps further south (South of the SF Bay area and Denver) than is available for current degree-day calculations, which cover the 5-state northwest only (not southern Wyoming at this time).
We are working with the Wyeast (The Dalles) weather network to bring daily max/min/precip data from up to 46 stations to this website as well.
2/3/2003
We have added more stations from Agrimet, Hydromet, and COOP networks, and updated METAR, RAWS, Medford, and Hood River Networks as well. The total station count is now 900 from these sources. We are moving the main home pages from the university server to the ippc2.orst.edu server, and plan to start using http://pnwpest.org/wea as the home page (same server, additional name) for this website in the near future.
1/2/2003
Network upgrades have forced a change of IP numbers for IPPC2 data and services, if you use hostnames (ippc2.orst.edu) this will not affect you. New year
conversion of tables and menus is in progress and should take another week
or so.
7/31/2002
New daily updated degree-day maps have been linked from the home page and
from each state table (via
a thumbnail size version of base 41 or 45 DD maps). This feature allows
ID,
MT,
OR,
WA, and
WY
to all have their own access to degree-day estimates and map access to
degree-day calculators for all points within the state. Also, maps of
deviations from normals allows for quick display of how much warmer or
cooler a given location is compared to historical average degree-days.
In addition, (on the left of each page), you may select a section of the
state and access the map via the GRASSLinks interactive GIS. We encourage
you to try this feature, click in the maps to zoom, pan, or query local degree-day
estimates, and compare these values to results from the individual
locations (access the single site calculator via the tables, the GRASSLinks
program, or the pulldown menus found in ddmodel.pl. We hope to
develop a tutorial for using this advanced interface in the future, but
we welcome you to try it out on your own in the meantime.
Note that Alaska and S. Canada do not have DD maps or a GRASSLinks
interface thus far, as we are lacking certain requirements at this time.
6/24/2002
The Medford data are NOT online at this time, and we are trying to find a
solution to the problem. (Problem fixed within a couple days-Len)
5/15/2002
The Medford data are online once again, thanks for your help Randy!
5/14/2002
The Medford data have been unavailable since late last week, due to changes in the
the Medford host network (firewalls, IP numbers, etc). They are working on the problem.
5/02/2002
The METAR, RAWS and Medford data have been repaired. Many NWS stations
(data transmitted via daily NWS minmax and coop reports) have large 2-week
gaps which have not been repaired yet. We are investigating ways to make these
latter repairs.
4/27/2002
Now there are problems with 1) All sites from Missoula NWS (METAR, RAWS), due to
their webserver going off-line for two days now and 2) Medford Bear Creek
Orchards network, due to networking problems in Medford.
Both problems are beyond any control here at OSU/IPPC, but I am sorry for
any inconvenience.
The AGRIMET data are up, and the HYDROMET data have now been repaired and are
up.
I will be out of town until April 30 so will not be able
to recover any data until then. Thank you for your patience. - Len
4/24/2002
We had a problem with AGRIMET data, hopefully now fixed and up to date. The
HYDROMET data have not been fixed yet, perhaps a few more days. Sorry about
any inconvenience. BTW, this problem was not caused by the server switch,
so please alert me RIGHT AWAY if you notice a problem - I dont mind and
really need help noticing any data problems with 700+ stations involved.
Thanks. Also, in fixing the Agrimet data I now have some scripts that will
automate gathering of any AGRIMET data. We may be adding more data types,
such as WIND RUN, once new models require it (or other) data. - Len
4/10/2002
A problem has resulted from the server switch for the mapmaking programs,
such that I have removed the "downscaling" option from the daily maps,
which will now have poorer resolution, but will be at least working. For
several days, the maps were not updating and were stuck on the same day,
even though the date was updating. Also, the initial maps from the
interactive mapmaker are often not correct, but if you click on the
GRASSLinks button, you DO get the proper map to work with. Sorry about all
these lingering issues, but eventually the whole system will be better and
faster and more accurate, we expect.
3/25/2002
The server switch is mostly finished - the mapmaker program now runs about 3 times faster,
but for some reason old maps are sometimes being delivered rather than the freshly made map.
If the
map does not appear even after clicking the "refresh or reload" button, try using the new
GRASSLinks interface, which should display the map and allow zooming, querying of degree-days
at particular points, etc. This new integration of on-demand degree-day maps and interactive GIS
gives us the potential for much more precise estimation of site-specific model predictions.
We will continue to improve the mapping GIS capabilities, and plan to add WA, ID, MT, and WY
degree-day mapping within the near future.
3/15/2002
We are switching servers and there will be various problems to be solved during
this time. Please contact Len if
you have a pressing need for a program or data that are not working. The
Hood River and Medford data are currently not transferring, and we are trying to
fix this one in particular. The new server should be around 3-4 times faster than the old one, and
has 6 times more disk space (PIV 1.9Ghz w/RAID 5 - 53 GB disk space). Thanks for your patience during any
downtime.
3/8/2002
The Agrimet/Hydromet website is back online, and we have resumed automated
collection of daily max/min/precip data.
3/1/2002
The Agrimet/Hydromet data have been brought up to date for 2002, and we
will continue to manually update the data every 2-4 days until further
notice.
2/5/2002
We have a temporary semi-automated way to update the Agrimet/Hydromet data,
Thanks to the US Bur. Reclamation. BUT 2002 data from Jan 1 - Jan 30 has
not been imported yet, so for now we have used 2001 data. Keep that in mind
until further notice, please.
2/2/2002
We have updated all Weather station tables, now offering 700+ stations, once Agrimet sites
come back online. Welcome Alaska! (Thanks to Tom Jahns and the W. Region Pest Management Centers initiative).
We are working with Bur. Land Management to try to expedite the return of the Agrimet & Hydromet
data networks. Added a new GIS/map interface to homepage, offering ability to select nearest weather station via map for selected DD MODEL. Let us know if you find this new GIS/map interface helpful. Several bugs and updates remain in the system, to be fixed soon. Working with Hood River (soon Medford) 15-minute pear scab and powdery mildew
models.
1/18/2002
Note the Agrimet and Hydomet data have been offline (down) since early Dec.
2001, due to a court order on the Dept. of Interior, see www.doi.gov for news. This problem affects many
people and organizations, and we will try to bring them back whenever they
come back online.
We are working to update all menus and tables with new locations and mostly
for the new years (2002) data. Let us know if you would like a particular
feature updated right away. Thanks for your patience.
LOG OF WHATS NEW 2001
11/17/2001
Improved the resolution enhancement feature within the DD mapmaking tool. Now,
the option for "enhanced resolution" is working more efficiently (is much
faster) and it is
recommended you try it for all regions except whole state mode. This
enhancement uses 30 second (ca. 500 meter) elevation data.
Also, we made the resolution enhancement standard for the daily degree-day maps.
9/14/2001
Added a new interface to the degree-day calculator: Grasslinks GIS
(maps). With this tool, you can see the available weather stations on a
map, click on the point, and get back a calculator with that location
selected. For some stations, the historical average and (if available), a
nearby weather.com 10 day forecast is also automatically selected (but is
not visible yet on the screen).
Once you enter thresholds, click the "calc" button and the calculated degree-days
will be shown. This interface, Grasslinks, allows you to zoom and pan
around the map to get a better view of your region. This version displays
land use, which may be helpful in determining your location. Grasslinks
also allows other GIS type work over the web. You may follow the links (not
officially working available at this time) and see what else you can do
with the system.
6/9/2001
1) Implemented a "missing data interpolation system", so that whenever missing data
occur, tags "Mx" and "Mn" signify that the data were estimated from
surrounding dates. (In the raw data files, these tags are "Ix" and "In" instead). This new
automated missing data estimation and reporting feature can help users select the most reliable weather stations for
their needs, and will improve the accuracy of degree-day maps. Read More.
2) Additional information from the models database is presented, for the phenology
modeling tool for each species model, on using BIOFIX/starting
dates for models. Some of these entries are in need of improvement, but this extra
information can help new users get started with the models.
4/5/2001
1) Added 47 new Wyoming and 42 new Washington historical average data
files to the ddmodels online calculator/modeling tool and to the online
tables. These are useful for forecasting and will be helpful in
developing online phenology maps as planned for all states in the NW.
In the Wyoming Data Table, only 14 average sites are displayed, mainly
because RAWS historical average data are not readily available. In
Washington, we were able to find nearby stations for many unavailable
sites, so be aware that not all sites match precisely in WA.
3/28/2001
1) Incorporated the new "resolution enhancement" option to Online DD map calculator,
which uses a "downscaling" algorithm. This new feature slows down the calculator
by a considerable amount, but the improvement in appearance and utility of the
resulting maps should be worth the extra wait.
2) A new model is being tested for pear scab in the Hood River region. See the
Table for Hood River and select the recent 15 minute data for pear scab risk alerts.
3/8/2001
1) Added three new regions to the daily dd maps - medford has been added to the original daily maps page, and now we have a second
page with Hermiston/NW OR and Ontario/SW ID with thresholds of 32 (for Downy Brome and many new crop models) and 52 (for Lygus bug in the E. OR/SW ID including the Treasure Valley area). We will soon be adding more line data (roads and agric. lands, etc) to improve reading of these maps. The Medford and Hood River regions will have degree-day maps that begin on a yet-to-be-determined biofix date for codling moth, continuing a trend of making DD maps more specific to individual needs.
2) Added 14 new crop models to the ddmodel program, including Barley, Wheat, Oat, Flax, Canary, Canola (Argentine and Polish), Mustard (Brown and Oriental), Mustard (Yellow), Chick Pea, Lentil, Pea, Safflower, and Sunflower. Check with Prof. Perry Miller
- Cropping Systems at MSU, pmiller@montana.edu, for assistance. These models were collated by Prof. Miller for use in Montana, but many may have a wider range of use. At some time in the near future we will add a way to access the program for individual categories of
models, such as crops, insects, weeds, and plant diseases, but for now, please make use of the bookmarking system to access specific models more quickly.
Note that there is a known bug - these models (or any) that do not
accumulate sufficient degree-days for the first event with current
(non-forecasted) weather data do not properly display labels next to the
appropriate days/degree-days. This happens for most colder locations (such
as in Montana) - you can see the labels at the top in the events table, and
in the graph at the bottom. We do plan to fix this bug soon. Thanks for your patience.
3) Added 10 new weather.com stations to the 10-day forecasts: for Idaho, added Boise, Coeur Dalene, Idaho Falls, Mountain Home, Ashton, and Fairfield; and for Oregon, added Madras, Bend, Pendleton, and Ontario.
4) Access to Hood River weather network 15 minute data has been achieved by
some data conversion scripts that run approx. every 10 minutes. The data
are stored in a spreadsheet-ready format for further analysis. Also, the
data are now in a format that will accomodate models which require 15
minute data, such as pear scab. The data are stored in files by day, for
example for 1 day old
data for the Mid-Col Exp Station. We are still improving this
conversion script so bear with us please.
2/26/2001
Overhauled the ddmodel
program, with many new features. These include photos of up to 4 life
stages, "instant" selection of new models when you "select model or
calculator", a new extended system for "bookmarking" selected options (described below), some ability to "traverse" years, so that a model could be run
from, say Oct 1, 2000 through March 31, 2001 (the DD plotting remains to
be updated to support this), elimination for the need to select region,
support of hundreds of new weather stations (described below), and
inclusion of several new species models, including sugarbeet root
maggot, in cooperation with Ed Bechinski, Univ. Idaho lygus bug [alfalfa
seed], in cooperation with Ben Simko, OSU Extension Malheur Co., pear scab, in
cooperation with Bob Spotts, Hood River Experiment Station, and many new
crop models, in cooperation with Perry Miller, MSU Dept. Land Resources and
Env. Sci.
How to use the new "Bookmarking" feature
Most settings for the form at the ddmodel program can now be "bookmarked" as if the program uses
the "GET" protocol (for those who understand web lingo). But because our
program relies on the other, "POST" protocol, we have emulated using the
URL to store form options, which provides a handy time-saving feature and
allows you to Bookmark and add hyperlinks in your own web pages to your
specific model, starting and ending month and day, locations, 10 day and
historical forecast locations, and standard calculator settings such as
thresholds, calculation method, and celsius output option. Options not yet
implemented as "bookmarkable" include table and graph options (default is
on), and show rainfall on graph (default is off), and a file upload name
(which probably cannot be implemented with most browsers unfortunately).
To use the feature, just select your options, and before clicking the calc
button, try RESELECTING the model or calculator mode, which will "lock in"
the abovementioned settings as part of the URL (Location field of your
browser). In Netscape 4.x, just reselecting the SAME model will do the job,
for most other browsers, you must first select a DIFFERENT model (dont
worry, no harm done), then SELECT the model you wish to use. Once you
have done this, you may use your browser's "Bookmarks"
or "Favorites" option to save all the settings. You could also use your
browsers File, Send Link menu option (Netscape browsers) to email yourself
or others the new link, for your future use such as embedding in your own
web pages.
Note that this bookmark feature is novel and may have some problems -
such as NO RESET button has yet been implemented. Therefore, if you change
models, some settings may not be appropriate any longer (although location
settings probalbly would be). You can always edit the URL manually and then
use the enter key on the keyboard to RESET the options.
Note that the Java DD calculator has been removed from the home page - it
seems to be unable to use 2001 data, and we do not plan to make any fixes,
so it finally sees retirement. Thanks to Rao who developed it back in
1996.
New locations
We have greatly expanded the scope of locations available with this
system, (see home for details), including more
sites for OR,
ID,
WA,
and new state WY
and even S. BC, AB & SK Canada.
Note that the older
tables for Oregon, Idaho
, and Washington remain online and serve as a
backup of some, but not all sites. Also Note that not all hyperlinks
throuout the website have yet been updated to the new tables. The new
sites are available for DD calculations from both tables and the
ddmodel.pl tool. The total number of stations available is currently more
than 500. New tables have been designed, such as OR, which allows access to current data, if
available, from NWS, Missoula, and displays Latitude, Longitude, and
Elevation for many stations. Note that if you tend to use the table to
calculate DDs for specific locations frequently, you might want to try out
the new BOOKMARKING feature described above for the ddmodel program.
That will allow you to bookmark all location and calculator settings,
plus use forecasts, offering greater convenience and more features.
LOG OF WHATS NEW 2000
10/30/2000
Short term forecast data revised to reflect weather.com's 10-day forecasts. Nine new Montana
weather.com forecast sites added to menu of
the main ddmodel program.
10/16/2000
A full selection of 90 historical weather records were added for Montana, both in the Montana table page, and for the main ddmodel program, which also has the current Montana
data listed for a subset of the 94 sites total.
8/16/2000
In cooperation with MSU/Entomology Dept/Will Lanier, 89 Montana (mostly NWS/COOP stations), have been added. So far you may access the stations through the Montana table page. We have not yet added these to the
ddmodel program; that should happen soon.
Also, we have added the source code for degree-day calculations, linked from the Introduction page, which has been modified a bit. Now you may determine exactly what algorithms are used for each type of degree-day, and please let us know if you see any descrepancies versus what you need.
7/27/2000
Added weather.com 7-day forecasts for Caldwell ID (near Boise), Pocatello ID, Twin Falls ID, and
Moscow ID.
7/17/2000
New historical average weather files for 8 Washington and 25 Idaho locations. These were derived from climate summary data at the NWS Western Region Climate Center in Reno, NV: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/climsum.html
6/05/2000
Added a feature to 7-day (weather.com) forecasts: now they display the precipitation/sky
conditions such as "partly cloudy" and "scattered showers".
6/02/2000
New weather sites/networks added recently include:
- Agrimet sites: 4 in Montana, 1 Idaho, 2 Oregon, 1 California
- NWS sites: 12 in Idaho
- RAWS agric./orchard sites: 1 in Oregon, 5 in Washington
- Grower network: Hood River OR (7 sites) - in cooperation with Hood River Grower Shippers and MCAREC
- Grower network: Medford OR (10 sites) - in cooperation with Bear Creek Orchards
These sites are now available through the 
