It is not yet clear to me (or perhaps to anyone??) if the MateoBlue forecast available for an additional fee in 2016 will be an improvement over the Norwegian forecast (yr.no<http://yr.no>) that was used during my evaluations of RIMpro over the past two years. Although RIMpro was using yr.no<http://yr.no> for it weather forecasts, I frequently compared their predictions last year with those of Accuweather and of the US National Weather Service. I did not attempt to document similarities or differences (and the three forecast services often had somewhat different predictions), but my impression is that none of the three were very good in predicting wetting periods for the lower part of the Hudson Valley. Thus, MateoBlue may or may not be an improvement over yr.no<http://yr.no> in terms of weather forecasts that can be linked to RIMpro, but I don’t really expect it to make a huge difference because I doubt that anyone anywhere has perfected weather algorithms enough to accurately predict shower activity in localized areas.
The weather algorithms used by most forecasters do petty well when there is a warm front or cold front that is clearly going to move through the area where you live. In those situations the predicted timing 4 days in advance may be slightly wrong, but the predicted events usually do occur, albeit sometimes sooner than the 4-day forecast predicted and sometimes later than the 4-day forecast predicted. Forecasters do less well with the 4-day and even the 2-day forecasts for locations that are on the boundary areas between two moving fronts, and/or when wetting periods are ultimately attributable to “scattered showers.” Growers who need 2 or 3 days of advance warning to apply protective fungicide covers across all of their acreage generally will be looking at the 4-day or 3-day forecast to make their decisions, especially if some days have windy conditions that interfere with spraying. Thus, I maintain that inaccurate weather forecasts during the prebloom period remain the primary cause for thousands of dollars in wasted fungicide sprays in the Hudson Valley and probably elsewhere. On Feb 14, 2016, at 2:59 PM, Jon Clements <jon.cleme...@umass.edu<mailto:jon.cleme...@umass.edu>> wrote: Yes, and interestingly, RIMpro has plans to offer an "enhanced" weather forecast option (meteoblue.com<http://meteoblue.com/>) in 2016 vs. the base forecast (yr.no<http://yr.no/>) included with RIMpro. The enhanced version will cost 50 euros (which is in addition to the base $200 euro RIMpro subscription). Users will also have the option for using meteoblue for historical as well as forecast data, alleviating the need for a hardware on-site weather station. My understanding all this is in the works, and should be available by early March on the RIMpro site, rimpro.eu<http://rimpro.eu/>. Jon On Sat, Feb 13, 2016 at 10:53 PM, David A. Rosenberger <da...@cornell.edu<mailto:da...@cornell.edu>> wrote: You can access a brief description of RIMpro in the blog commentary that I posted at http://blogs.cornell.edu/plantpathhvl/blog/ on Jan 21. The blog post provides a link to a PDF file that contains a 3-page description of RIMpro along with my impressions of the program after evaluating it for two seasons. RIMpro is a rather complex program that is not easily described in a short document. If you are like me, you will have difficulty understanding how useful it is until you actually use it for a year or two. It sounds simplistic when you you just look at a few printouts, but I found that it was really useful for estimating how critical the next predicted wetting period might be as we move through the primary apple scab season. The RIMpro program has several weaknesses (in my opinion) which are described in the PDF file noted above. The biggest problem is that RIMpro predictions for ascospore releases are based on weather forecasts, and the accuracy of the 4-day or even 2-day weather forecasts in my region in spring has been dismal. RIMpro will provide you with an estimate of spore release that is likely to occur with rains predicted over the next 4-5 days, but that spore-release prediction will jump around as the rains approach because the weather forecasts jump around, sometimes in the extreme. I found RIMpro to be a very useful tool, but won’t be a really great tool until weather forecasts become more accurate. It is possible that in some regions, forecasts are more accurate than in the Hudson Valley. Over the past few years, we seem to frequently be at the interface of storms that come up the coast, but then just miss us because we are a bit too far north and storms that come across the Great Lakes but then just miss us because we are a bit too far south. As a result, over the past five years (roughly) we have gotten frequent predictions for major rain storms and spore discharge events during the prebloom period only to have the storms muss us completely. Growers apply fungicides based on the forecasts, but then find that those sprays served no purpose because it remains dry. RIMpro will not resolve that kind of problem, but it will tell you what might happen if the forecasters get it right. ******************************************** Dave Rosenberger, Plant Pathologist, Hudson Valley Lab, P.O. Box 727, Highland, NY 12528 Cell: 845-594-3060<tel:845-594-3060> ******************************************** > On Feb 13, 2016, at 2:59 PM, Dennis Norton > <dmnor...@royaloakfarmorchard.com<mailto:dmnor...@royaloakfarmorchard.com>> > wrote: > > Jon, > > Being int he Midwest, I will not be able to attend the Summit. Where can we > get more information on the RIMpro Cloud Service other than the web site, or > should we set up an account to learn more? > > Thanks! > > Dennis Norton > IPM Specialist/Certified Nurseryman > Royal Oak Farm Orchard > 15908 Hebron Rd. > Harvard, IL 60033-9357 > Office (815) 648-4467<tel:%28815%29%20648-4467> > Mobile (815) 228-2174<tel:%28815%29%20228-2174> > Fax (609) 228-2174<tel:%28609%29%20228-2174> > http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com<http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com/> > http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.blogspot.com<http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.blogspot.com/> > https://www.facebook.com/royaloakfarmorchard/ > > On 2/12/2016 11:07 AM, Jon Clements wrote: >> RIMpro Cloud Service > > _______________________________________________ > apple-crop mailing list > apple-crop@virtualorchard.net<mailto:apple-crop@virtualorchard.net> > http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop _______________________________________________ apple-crop mailing list apple-crop@virtualorchard.net<mailto:apple-crop@virtualorchard.net> http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop -- Jon Clements aka 'Mr Honeycrisp' UMass Cold Spring Orchard 393 Sabin St. Belchertown, MA 01007 413-478-7219 umassfruit.com<http://umassfruit.com/> _______________________________________________ apple-crop mailing list apple-crop@virtualorchard.net<mailto:apple-crop@virtualorchard.net> http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop
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