The Useful to Usable climate initiative based at Purdue University has added an online tool enabling farmers and agricultural advisers to better assess how climate patterns in other parts of the world can influence local conditions and corn yields across the Corn Belt.The Climate Patterns Viewer can help growers make more informed farm management decisions during different phases of the El Niño Southern Oscillation and Arctic Oscillation. It relates historical events of those phases to the effects of associated precipitation and temperatures over the course of a year.

“By tapping into this historical data, growers and advisers can get a sense of what conditions might be coming during a particular ENSO or AO phase based on past experience,” said Melissa Widhalm, project manager of Useful to Usable, or U2U. “The Climate Patterns Viewer is an invaluable planning tool, whether you’re deciding what and when to plant or how to deal with a cooler and shorter growing season.”

Hans Schmitz, Purdue Extension educator and agricultural meteorologist, noted that certain areas of the Corn Belt can be quite a bit drier, wetter, warmer or cooler than average because of the ENSO and AO oscillations.

“The ability to look at the historical effect month-by-month better influences management decisions this growing season,” he said.

More information about this and other U2U tools is available on the U2U website​​.

Resources
National Institute of Food and Agriculture, (NIFA)
Indiana Small Farm Conference, Purdue Department of Agriculture
Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation: Challenges and Opportunities for Agriculture, The Education Store

Melissa Widhalm, Useful to Usable Project Manager
Department of Forestry and Natural Resources