As of 12:01 AM, August 28th, 2008
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East Lansing MIGDD: 1947 |
Latest Updates & Notes
April 10th, 2008Growing Degree-Day Refresher
Growing degree day models use a base temperature for calculating biological activity on a given day. Base temperatures are related to the organism being tracked. For instance, insects are cold-blooded and the base temperature for most insect models is 55 degrees F. The base temperature will vary depending on the organism.
Example Calculations: One way to calculate growing degree days (GDD) is to use a simple average. In this method you take the average temperature from a given day (low temp + high temp / 2) and subtract the base temperature for the model you are tracking. If the result is less than zero then the GDD total for that day is zero. If the result is greater than zero then the result of the formula is your GDD total for that day. The models use cumulative totals to predict their target ranges. The GDDTracker site starts recording on March 1st of each year. The GDD totals displayed for a given location will vary depending on the base temperature for each model and the target ranges for that model.
March 31st, 2008Cold March: In and out like a lion.
What a difference a year makes. In 2007, we have several warm days in March that accelerated GDD accumulation. No such events in 2008. If you are interested to see the difference between 2008 and 2007 try out the new FLASHBACK tool. One click and you will see what the map looked like one year ago today. Hopefully, the weather will break soon and we can get the mowers fired up.
Thanks to everyone for the comments and feedback that you send. We are working diligently on fixing little bugs as they present themselves. As most of the weather stations switch to cellular delivery from landlines our database looks for data in the wrong file. We are staying on top of these changes as they occur so that the system can keep chugging away.
February 29th, 2008New User-requested Features
Thanks to excellent feedback from GDDTracker users we have added three new features for 2008.
New Feature #1: Many users request multiple alerts from multiple locations. We have improved the automated alert messages so you know which alert has been triggered for which location.
New Feature #2: When selecting automatic alerts you only have to select the weather station the first time. This way you can add several alerts without having to scroll through all the weather stations each time. It is still easy to add alerts for other stations, simply select a new station from the list.
New Feature #3: Have you ever wondered if it's a lot hotter this year than last year? With the new Flashback Tool you can ask GDDTracker to redraw the map for the currently selected model with data from one year ago. This should help satisfy your curiosity as to whether the weather is really different.
January 7th, 2008GDDTracker is ready for another year.
Thanks to everyone that made GDDTracker a success in 2007. We have reset the system and are ready for another year. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions please let us know. We will be putting tweaking things periodically running up to March 1st.
