Monday, May 14, 2007
Forecasting Insects? The Business of Weather
Plain and simple, business is business, and the weather clearly dictates how business can make a profit. Ask any farmer and they will tell you that they live and die by the weather. Speaking of the farming forecast, right now the U.S. is going through a major Ethanol boom, especially given that the federal Renewable Fuel Standard mandates at least 4 billion gallons, or about 3% of all U.S. transportation fuels, to come from alternative sources today, and nearly double that amount, or 7.5 billion gallons, by 2012. ; however, this boom could go bust if the corn crop doesn't survive the summer! 2007 should be named the year of the kernel, because more and more land will be used to plant corn, in fact, the last time this amount of corn was produced was back around WWII.
You can't grow corn without the right conditions, and I'm sure commodity traders are feeling pressure about the long range forecast for this summer. You probably never thought about it, but trading companies like Smith Barney have meteorologists on staff to assist the traders.
It's intriguing to me that business is directly connected to the weather forecast. Let's stick with the Ethanol example, so not only are the farmers checking the weather forecast, but also the insect forecast. That's right, the insect forecast. This forecast is being done back at my Alma mater, Northern Illinois University
At NIU, Dr. David Changnon and his group of forecasters are boldly forecasting insect swarms that could devastate crops. They want to know where the corn earworm is heading, because if mother nature doesn't take the crops, these insects will. Dr. Changnon told me that these insects typically originate to the south, and then move north. These insects get trapped in thermal rising air currents that develop above the corn, and eventually, the rising air carries them up into the clouds. It sounds biblical, but when the rain starts to fall, the insects fall out from the clouds in what's called a "drop zone". Dr. Changnon and his crew forecasts these drop zones in order to alert the farmers on where to spray for the insects.
Business and weather go hand in hand, so when you eat that wonderful ear of corn this summer, just think, figuratively speaking, many people may have had their hands on your corn before you even coated it with butter!
Fore more information on the drop zone forecasts go to this website...
Posted by Drew Michaels at 9:59 AM
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