Climate Data Available to eFOTG Users

Through the Agriculture Applied Climate Information System, or AgACIS, eAuthenticated users of the electronic Field Office Technical Guide (eFOTG) in all 50 States and the Caribbean and Pacific Basins can now access a variety of climate data by specific National Weather Service (NWS) network reporting locations.  AgACIS is a cooperative effort between NRCS and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Regional Climate Centers (RCC) to make climate data and applications available through the Internet.  AgACIS mirrors the RCC's Applied Climate Information System (ACIS) with some modifications to meet NRCS field needs.

The following types of data and reports are available:

• Daily Data For A Month provides daily maximum, minimum, and average temperatures, based on based on a growing degree base of either 50 degrees or 40 degrees Fahrenheit, precipitation, snowfall, and depth of snow on the ground for all days of the current or previous month.

• Daily Almanac provides a summary of observed, normal (30 year average), and period of record extreme values of temperature, precipitation, snowfall, and snow depth for a specific date and for month-to-date or year-to-date.

• Monthly Averages/Totals calculates averages or totals, as requested, for the selected variable for each month of the year for a specific year in the period of record or an average of the years 1971 through 2000.

• Monthly Occurrences counts the number of days that a specified criterion is met for each month of the year for a specific year in the period of record or an average of the years 1971 through 2000.

• Monthly Extremes finds the extreme daily highest or lowest value for each month of the year for a specific year in the period of record or an average of the years 1971 through 2000.

• Daily Extremes finds the extreme daily highest or lowest value on record for each calendar day of the year based on the station's entire period of record.

• Daily/Monthly Normal provides daily and monthly official normals for the years 1971 through 2000, for locations where temperature has been routinely recorded.  Snowfall normals are only available for first-order weather stations.

• Record Extremes finds the top ten extreme high or low values for any day during the station's period of record. Searches can be restricted to a month or season, if desired.

• Frost/Freeze Dates finds the last spring and first fall occurrence of minimum temperatures below a selected threshold for each month of the year for a specific year in the period of record or an average of the years 1971 through 2000.

• The Temperature and Precipitation Summary table (TAPS) gives a month by month summary and probability analysis of temperature and precipitation based on a growing degree base of either 50 degrees or 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

• The Frost-Free Analysis table (FROST) provides information on the average date of the last temperature below three specified index temperatures (default 24, 28 and 32 degrees Fahrenheit) in the spring, and the average date of the first temperature above the index temperatures in the fall at probabilities of 10, 20, and 50 percent.

• The Growing Season Analysis table (GROWTH) gives average length of growing season using three index temperatures (default 32, 28, and 24 degrees Fahrenheit) at 10, 20, 50, 80, and 90 percent probabilities.

• The Wetlands Evaluation Tables (WETS) gives a month by month summary and probability analysis of temperature and precipitation based on a growing degree base of either 50 degrees or 40 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as an average length of growing season using three specified index temperatures (default 32, 28, and 24 degrees Fahrenheit) at 50 and 70 percent probabilities.

The agreement with the RCC's limits persons using AgACIS to individuals who are eAuthenticated. This does not limit use to only NRCS employees.  All partner employees and Technical Service Providers may obtain and eAuthentication in order to access the data available.

Activation of AgACIS meets the NRCS National Business Plan goal of integrating AgACIS within eFOTG to support real-time Emergency Watershed Protection activities.

Future plans include integrating the weather and climate data collected by NRCS using the SNOw TELemetry (SNOTEL) and Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) networks data into AgACIS.
Your contact is James Marron, NRCS resource conservationist, at 503-414-3047.