Farmers and gardeners in Walton County have a new agricultural tool in the form of a FAWN (Florida Automated Weather Network) weather station.
The $15,000 station funded by the University of Florida was installed at Brown Pit off Brown Road in the north county.
“It’s up and running,” said Mike Goodchild, director of the county Extension Office.“We put it in north Walton because we’ve got more farmers up there.”
The weather station can record a variety of information, including rainfall and the dew point.
“You can get soil temperatures, and people who plant fruit crops can get chill hours — that’s every hour that the temperature is under 45 degrees (for the year.),” Goodchild said. “It can help you decide what are some of your better fruit trees to plant.”
Residents can access the FAWN station at fawn.ifas.ufl.edu to get specific information for Walton County, he added.
Other resources include aerial maps and links to publications from the University of Florida on agriculture, horticulture and turf grass.
As the gets hotter and more humid, the weather station’s data will be especially helpful to people growing crops and gardens, Goodchild said.
“You can get things like evaporation rates,” he said. “So if you’re a farmer, you can know how much water to add back to your crops. … That’s very important.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Kari C. Barlow at 850-315-4438 or kbarlow@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KariBnwfdn.