Presentations
T8
Crop Management
Tue, Dec 13, 2022
8:00am to 8:50am
T1
Crop Management
Tue, Dec 13, 2022
1:00pm to 1:50pm
High Impact Meteorology 2022 Recap and 2023 Outlook
Disruptive weather events across agriculturally productive regions are a major part of commodity price movement. In 2022, early season drought in the Plains led to farmers having to pre-irrigate ground before planting. Flooding in the Northern Plains combined with very cold spring weather delayed planting. Multiple derecho events leveled crops in the eastern and western Cornbelt in spring while Western US drought deepened and La Niña continued to strengthen. Summer heat baked the Southern Plains and MidSouth under a large ridge while 5 separate 1000-yr flood events hit in late summer. It was a highly anomalous year that fragmented the main ag belts of the US and prevented large “garden spots” from forming. What tools do we have to easily and efficiently stay ahead of these types of events? The success of producers throughout the US is critical to the US financial health and significant weather events (i.e., drought, floods, severe storms) cause substantial volatility in our grower’s financial stability. In this presentation, we will discuss the lessons learned during 2022 growing season. We will talk about the winter and spring 2023 forecast as La Niña starts to shift and relinquish control on the global weather patterns. We will learn the limits of predictability for future high impact weather events and understand the tools and resources available to us to monitor the weather during our growing season. We will also discuss the progress of 2022-23 South American Growing Season and provide insights on what to expect in summer 2023 for the US.
Speaker
Eric Snodgrass
Eric Snodgrass is a Sr. Science Fellow and Principal Atmospheric Scientist for Nutrien Ag Solutions, where he develops predictive, analytical software solutions to manage weather risk for global production agriculture. He provides frequent weather updates that focus on how high-impact weather events influence global agriculture productivity. His current research uses machine learning to better understand field-level weather impacts on yields in the US and to increase confidence in long-range weather prediction. He presents his research as a featured speaker at over 120 conferences annually where he provides logistical guidance and solutions to weather sensitive financial institutions, farmers, commodity traders, and other stakeholders. Snodgrass is a co-founder of Global Weather and Climate Logistic, LLC and Agrible, Inc which were both acquired by Nutrien Ag Solutions in 2018.
Before transitioning to Nutrien Ag Solutions, Eric was the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2006-2019. Each year, he guided over 1800 students through the wild side of weather in ATMS 120: Severe and Hazardous Weather. He taught advanced courses on General Physical Meteorology, Meteorological Instrumentation, while routinely guest lectured for multiple disciplines across campus including the College of Law and the College of Agricultural and Consumer Economics. He also supervised dozens Capstone Research projects that focused on the economic impacts through applied meteorology and seasonal prediction. Snodgrass also taught advanced courses for the Environmental Sustainability Program on Renewable and Alternative Energy . He advised all undergraduate majors and minors in atmospheric science (~100 students) and supervised graduate teaching assistants and master’s students. He won many prestigious teaching awards at the University of Illinois including College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Excellence award, the Campus Teaching Excellence Award and the Campus Teaching Excellent Award in Online and Distance Education. His online version of ATMS 120 was awarded the 2012 "Best Online Course" from the University Professional Continuing Education Association (a national organization). Eric currently serves as the chair of the Alumni Council for the Department of Atmospheric Science’s at the University of Illinois.