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GRAPE GRO WING access to region-wide or countywide degree days, but Pride finds it useful to count his property's unique experience. Looking at growing degree days lets a vineyard manager know how the growing season is developing relative to previous years. Pride has 15 years' worth of growing degree day records from neighboring Paloma Vineyard for comparisons. Pride says, "The stations allow us to quantify our growing and ripening seasons, which means we can make the correlation between weather, viticultural practices and subsequent wine quality each vintage. Having the weather part continuously recorded is important to making these linkages." WSU's AgWeatherNet In the Pacific Northwest, Washington State University operates AgWeatherNet. Each weather station collects the full suite of weather data required for vineyard management including air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direc- tion, solar radiation, leaf wetness, soil temperature and precipitation, etc. The data is available in near real- time, and its quality is monitored on a continuous basis. In addition to providing the real data, the net has a range of tools, WinesandVinesFeb2012_BWquarterpagead.pdf Surprising diurnal discovery O ne surprise the instruments demonstrated at Pride Mountain Vineyards was a smaller than expected diurnal swing. "I have been astonished to learn from the weather sta- tions just how narrow our diurnal temperature fluctuation is on the property," Pride said. "Most mornings during the growing season there is a temperature inversion, in which temperatures rise the higher you head up into the mountains. We have learned that the warmest point on the property is always at the highest elevation of 2,180 feet. "Low temps for us on a morning in which the valley has fog and 54°F will typically be in the low 70°s at 2,100 feet and in the mid 60°s at the 2,000-foot elevation. On a day like that, high temps might get up into the mid-80°s, while it could be low 90°s down in the valley. During the warm weather of the second week of August this year, we had low temps of 80° or 81°, with high temps of only 94° or 95°. We would never have guessed the low temperatures were that warm at 4 a.m." P.F. models and decision support systems based on the weather data. Recent advancements include cold hardiness, an updated growing degree day tool and various disease models. In collaboration with an irrigation engineer, an irrigation-scheduling tool was developed that can be accessed from a hand-held device like a phone or computer. 1 1/8/12 7:50 PM More than curiosities Weather stations have long been inter- esting for grapegrowers, who have so much riding on the weather. But with the addition of better digital tools, weather stations have become more than curiosities, and potentially impor- tant ways to use weather data continue to unfold. TANKNET® THERMOSTATS operate stand-alone and network with NO NEW WIRES at the tank. C M Y CM MY CY CMY K View this issue on your computer or any mobile device. Now all print subscribers get free digital access DIGITAL EDITION WWW.ACROLON.COM 707 938-1300 48 WINES & VINES DECEMBER 2012 ® winesandvines.com/digitaledition