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CIMIS Data Uses
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Since the beginning of the CIMIS weather station network in 1982, the primary purpose of CIMIS was to make available to the public, free of charge, information useful in estimating crop water use for irrigation scheduling. Although irrigation scheduling continues to be the main use of CIMIS, the uses have been constantly expanding over the years. At present, there are approximately 6,000 registered CIMIS users from diverse backgrounds accessing the CIMIS computer directly. It is estimated requests for CIMIS information on the WWW average about 70,000 per year. There are also many secondary suppliers of CIMIS weather data, such as other web sites, radio, newspapers, consultants, and local water agencies.
Although CIMIS continues to improve data collection and dissemination to keep current with evolving irrigation management practices and technologies there is emerging a much broader use and application of CIMIS data. The availability of hourly, daily and monthly weather data from CIMIS has greatly improved the flexibility of data applications for a myriad of business functions.
Some of the broader applications we are seeing are a greater CIMIS presence in the planning and management of resources. These resources include not only water use, but also, water quality, planning water balances, water shed maintenance, air resources monitoring and predicting, and forestry management. Modeling is becoming ever more important with CIMIS data being automatically downloaded into degree-day, pest management, and plant and weather models. These uses are being applied at the local, regional, State, Federal agency's level.
Some of the users and uses of the CIMIS data include:
- Farm commodity purchasers for predicting product quality
- Pesticide applicators for weather prediction and documentation
- Waste water facilities planning and management
- Local and state water planners and managers
- Legal and Insurance Firms for documentation and litigation
- High schools for educational purposes
- Homeowner associations for water conservation
- Air quality monitoring assistance
- Federal Agencies for resource management and studies
- Users from other countries for planning and development of similar networks
- California State Department’s providing public assistance and water use planning
- Automated Severe Weather Warning Systems
- Solar and wind power design
- Hydrological modeling for water availability and groundwater recharge
- University of California Integrated Pest Management Project for degree-day calculations and pest and plant modeling
- Urban landscape planning and managing
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