Risk Forecasting and Evaluation Using the NEWA and AgRadar Platforms

February 18, 2025 – 11:00 a.m. (eastern)

Register at cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_G3y1vDpjS7W7nAw74QUw-Q#/registration

The webinar will be recorded for anyone unable to attend the live session.

Description

The NEWA platform provides practical tools for weather-based risk forecasting, helping users make informed decisions about pest and crop management. This talk will cover how NEWA combines high-resolution weather data, predictive models, and user-friendly tools to assess risks like freeze events, disease outbreaks, and crop loss. We’ll discuss how these features support monitoring and forecasting of microclimate-driven risks to aid in planning and management.

AgRadar translates high-resolution site-specific hourly weather observations and forecast values into guidance for apple insect and disease management decisions. This presentation will briefly review how weather data are acquired, analyzed, and translated into charts and tables that are automatically published for viewing as web pages. The rest of the presentation will demonstrate examples of the various types of output products, including daily risk ratings for apple scab and fire blight infection severity, key apple bud stage and fruit development dates with associated frost and thinning sensitivity, optimum dates for disease and insect pest monitoring and management, and estimated pesticide depletion dates to identify respray intervals.

Dan Olmstead

Project Lead, Network for Environment and Weather Applications, New York State Integrated Pest Management

Dan Olmstead is the project lead of the Network for Environment and Weather Applications (NEWA; newa.cornell.edu) at New York State Integrated Pest Management. With an MSc in entomology from Cornell University and expertise in decision support systems, digital outreach, and environmental data science, Dan focuses on connecting growers, researchers, and stakeholders with actionable microclimate data. By leveraging over 1,000 public and private weather stations, NEWA delivers accessible tools that enable informed pest and weather risk management across New York State and beyond.

Glen Koehler

Associate Scientist, IPM, University of Maine Cooperative Extension

Glen Koehler is Associate Scientist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Pest Management Unit. Since 1988 he has provided research-based information and pest management reports to Maine apple growers.