Minnesota Department of Agriculture and NDAWN staff installed the MAWN/NDAWN weather station July 23-24 at the University of Minnesota Crookston North Farm north of Highway 75. MAWN is the Minnesota Agricultural Weather Network and NDAWN is the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network.
Maureen Obul, director of operations at the Northwest Research and Outreach Center, explains how NDAWN stations are installed in Minnesota. “The ROC System, Research and Information Center, we have 10 people in Minnesota, and as the ROC System we were trying to find a weather station that would work for all of us, and we did a couple of things that didn’t pan out. worked really well. Radio NDAWN was always on our minds, so at the meeting in Sao Paulo we had a very good discussion and decided why don’t we look at NDAWN.”
Supervisor Obul and her farm manager called NDSU’s Daryl Ritchison to discuss the NDAWN weather station. “Daryl said on the phone that the Minnesota Department of Agriculture has a $3 million project in the budget to create NDAWN stations in Minnesota. The stations are called MAWN, Minnesota Agricultural Weather Network,” Director O’Brien said.
Director O’Brien said information collected from the MAWN weather station is available to the public. “Of course, we are very happy about this. Crookston has always been a great location for an NDAWN station and we’re really excited that everyone will be able to walk into an NDAWN station or go to our website and click a link there and get what they need. All information about the area.”
The weather station will become an important part of the scientific and educational center. Principal Oble said she has four faculty members who are scientists working in different fields and seeking to secure funding for their projects. The real-time data they receive from weather stations and the data they collect will help their research.
Director Obl explained that the opportunity to install this weather station on the University of Minnesota Crookston campus is a great research opportunity. “The NDAWN weather station is located about a mile north of Highway 75, directly behind our research platform. At the center, we do crop research, so there’s about 186 acres of research platform there, and our mission is that ) from NWROC, the St. Paul campus and other research and outreach centers also use the land for research testing, Director Aubul added.
Weather stations can measure air temperature, wind direction and speed, soil temperature at different depths, relative humidity, air pressure, solar radiation, total rainfall, etc. Director Oble said this information is important to farmers in the region and the community. “I just think overall it will be good for the Crookston community.” For more information, visit the NW Online Research and Outreach Center or the NDAWN website.
Post time: Sep-29-2024