FarmRoad's Irrigation Forecast Dashboard combines climate insights with sophisticated water demand (ET) models to make planning and forecasting irrigation easier than ever
The irrigation forecast dashboard is comprised of the following :
- An hourly outside climate forecast for up to 48 hours ahead
- A daily weather forecast for up to 7 days ahead
- A sophisticated Evapotranspiration water demand model for both the hourly and daily forecasts
The hourly climate forecast includes the following data points:
- Temperature (Celcius) - the outside/outdoor temperature
- Accumulated Radiation (J/cm2) - the hourly accumulated radiation
- Vapour Pressure Deficit (kPa) - the difference between the amount of moisture in the air and how much moisture the air can hold when it is saturated
- Evapotranspiration (mm) - reference Evapotranspiration (ETo), which is an estimate for how much water will be lost due to a combination of evaporation and transpiration of a reference crop, given the predicted climate conditions
Moving the mouse cursor (web) or dragging a finger (mobile or tablet) over the graph will bring up a tooltip showing the values at the nearest hour.
By clicking on one of the above data types in the legend, you can simplify the graph if desired.
Ways to use the forecast dashboard
The way you use the forecast dashboard will depend on your unique irrigation strategy, but we can provide some recommendations:
- Take note of the times of peak radiation, VPD and/or Evapotranspiration throughout the day - these are the times you should carefully consider adjusting irrigation volumes
- Compare yesterday's times of peak radiation, VPD and Evapotranspiration with Today - this will help you understand what changes you might need to make to make to compared with yesterday's irrigation schedule
- Observe the Evapotranspiration figures and trends for the next 7 days to understand how irrigation volumes might change over the next week
- Review the 7 day forecast to check for any unexpected or extreme weather conditions which you might need to prepare for in advance
- For the previous day, compare the volumes you irrigated each hour with the hourly Evapotranspiration curve for Yesterday. You should see a close correlation. If you're not seeing a similar trend, it could be worth reviewing your irrigation strategy.