Webinar #97 - September 2026

High Impact Meteorology in Production Agriculture

Eric Snodgrass
Nutrien Agronomy
Tolono, IL

(Biography)

"Weather risk is ubiquitous in the production agriculture - from the efficiency of supply chain to seasonal supply and demand, to the micro-climates that affect crop growth - weather is a driving force in our decision making. High impact weather events like flash flood, flash drought, hail, high winds, and hurricanes just a few of the annual threats to parts of our business. We plan for the averages, but with weather, average is not something the atmosphere produces as it is common for daily weather events to vary 3 or 4 standard deviations from the mean. We consume every source of weather forecast information available to better understand the day-to-day and week-to-week variability. Are we getting better at predicting weather? How has AI influenced weather forecasting? What are the best resources for predicting weather events and how can the agriculture exploit these resources to reduce risk? This talk with focus on the state-of-the-art approaches to weather analysis and forecasting. We will discuss the myriads of factors that influence weather events and learn where to find the best forecast information. We will talk about big climate drivers like El Niño and La Niña and learn why meteorologists focus so much on the oceans when determining long range weather/climate events. Finally, we will showcase long term trends in impactful weather events and discuss how to use these trends to determine the future success of US agriculture."

View the Webinar on YouTube by clicking here
View Eric's presentation slides  

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