Winnipeg, Manitoba
June 18, 2008
Latest weather station
installed at Regina’s IPSCO Place for Farm Progress Show
The
CWB today launched an innovative new online weather centre
for farmers to manage information from the CWB-WeatherBug®
network, now the most extensive weather monitoring network in
Western Canada.
The weather centre puts localized, instant weather updates at
farmers’ fingertips, along with the capability to track historic
trends of factors such as temperature, precipitation and wind
speed and direction. It is fed with information from a farmer’s
own weather stations and hundreds of others recently installed
on farms, at Pioneer grain elevators and at agri-retail outlets
across Western Canada.
The latest station has just been installed on the roof of
Regina’s IPSCO Place, home of the Western Canada Farm Progress
Show. Interested farmers can check out the data at the CWB booth
in Banner Hall, today through Friday.
“This new weather network is proving extremely popular with
Prairie producers,” said CWB weather analyst Guy Ash, who
developed the concept for the Internet-based network and heads
the project. “We are struggling to keep up with demand at this
point, which is a good indicator of the need that’s out there.
Producers want very specific weather information to feed into
their farm management plans – whether it’s for maximizing
fertilizer applications or estimating crop quality.”
Bayer CropScience has recently become a major network partner,
along with Pioneer Grain, Alberta’s Parkland Agri-Services and
others.
Weather station information can also be accessed through home
computers, personal handheld devices or cell phones for handy
instant updates from anywhere. Current weather information is
updated every few seconds, with localized forecasts updated
hourly and weather warning alerts available.
Access to the weather centre, through CWB e-Services at
www.cwb.ca, is available for a subscription of $99 per year for
farmers with a CWB weather station and $199 a year for those
without. The weather stations cost $900 for farmers who wish to
be put on a waiting list for CWB installation. “Our new network
is a cost-effective solution to a longstanding problem for
farmers who have been looking for type of weather information,”
said Ash. WeatherBug and the CWB have achieved commitments to
date for 900 weather-monitoring stations, greatly surpassing
initial projections last August to connect more than 600
stations over a three-year span.
With a worldwide network of weather sensors, WeatherBug Tracking
Stations and cameras, WeatherBug maintains the largest exclusive
weather network in the world. The weather-tracking stations are
wireless and solar-powered and require a high-speed Internet
connection. They measure wind speed and direction, humidity,
precipitation, temperature, barometric pressure and dew point.
The general public can access live, local weather information
and forecasts through the WeatherBug Web site at
http://weather.ca.weatherbug.com .
Controlled by western Canadian farmers, the CWB is the
largest wheat and barley marketer in the world. One of Canada’s
biggest exporters, the Winnipeg-based organization sells grain
to over 70 countries and returns all sales revenue, less
marketing costs, to farmers. |
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