2013 Climate Study Results

Greetings all!  Quick note, our March 26 wine tasting event was postponed, new date to be determined.

As promised in my last blog below is be a presentation of the lasted results from our climate study.  Overall 2013 felt like a better year and a better growing season then 2012 and the numbers reflect that (good ole trick knee was right again!).  Again all our data is calculated over the growing season from April 1 to October 31.

A big shout out and Thanks to Jerome Goodman, fellow Burtonite, who took it upon himself to volunteer his time to take our hard data (and there is a lot, nearly 60,000 data points per unit!) and write a program to calculate all the data for us.

A few issues we discovered in our data collection.  We noticed that some of our data stopped in September (whhaaat?). Investigation into this revealed that our dataloggers were collecting data at too high of a rate (every 10 minutes) and the data capacity of the unit was exceeded and  the units stopped recording.  That seemed odd so we looked at our 2012 data and same thing - we just missed it last year.  Bugger!

So for the units that stopped we extrapolated the data from nearby units in a similar "zone" and re-calculated. We went back and did the same for the 2012 data.  

To make sure we do not have the issue again we re-visited every unit and re-set to collect data every 30 minutes (Thanks Volunteers!)  This solves the capacity issues, as well gives us way less data to sort through so makes interpretation easier as a bonus!  So with everything recalculated here is our growing degree numbers for 2012 and 2013.

Growing Degree Days (GDD)

Region	2011*	2012	2013
Nakusp	N/A	935	1074
Arrow Park	N/A	933	1059
Burton	N/A	1029	1139
Needles/Fauquier	N/A	1058	1144

 As a comparison Summerland BC for 2012 was 1333 GDD and 2013 was 1415 GDD.  

We also like to look at the Frost Free Days (FFD).  Frost occurs when the temperature of air falls below the freezing point of water (0 °C). This is usually measured at the height of 1 m above the ground surface. There is a rather subjective scale to show several degrees of frost severity:

·        slight frost: 0 to −2.0 °C

·        moderate frost: −2.1 to −6.5 °C

·        severe frost: −6.6 to −11.5 °C

·        very severe frost: below −11.5 °C

For our purposes we used “slight” frost as our parameter, using 0°C for our last spring frost and -2°C for our first fall frost.  Most grape varieties require approximately 140 FFD,  This was a change from 2012, so again we re-calculated the numbers.

Frost Free Days (FFD)

Region	2011*	2012	2013
Nakusp	N/A	148	170
Arrow Park	N/A	134	165
Burton	N/A	160	175
Needles/Fauquier	N/A	123	162

We also look at a few other parameter in the research plot.  While one year of data is not very representative, it is presented below. 

Location: 107 Burton Main Road	Min	Max	Average
Relative Humidity (%)	17.1	100	77.4
Solar Radiation (Watts/m2)	0.6	1147	157
Wind Speed (m/s)	0.0	4.03	1.2
Wind Direction	0.0	355.2	N/A
Leaf Wetness (%)	0.0	100	31

What doe sit all mean? The numbers for leaf wetness and relative humidity do suggest a wetter climate that could lead to moisture related diseases for some agriculture products (Surprise!).  In absence of wind aided drying, a higher attention to crop management would be required in these cases. 

The numbers for wind speed and wind direction suggest that the research plot is subject to winds that will provide some aid in drying canopies after rains, reducing the spread of moisture related disease or reducing extreme high temperatures and humidity (that is good!)

As very little information on solar radiation is available at this time, it is difficult to assess if the numbers are considered an asset to the growing product. (Stay tuned!)

So there it is.  If there are folks out there who read this and have one of our units on their property and want to see specific data on their site, post a comment back and we can look at getting it to you.

And oh, our Spring Workbee is April 19 at 9:00 AM if you can join us.

Next up: Spring pruning and winter damage.