Growing Degree Day User Guide(SD-AWDN)
maintained
by
Office of
State Climatologist
Department of Agricultural Engineering
South Dakota State University
Growing Degree Days (GDDs) are used to monitor the
energy available for plant growth and development (more
information). All GDD on this page are calculated by the "modified
average method" with 86 F and the base temperature used for cutoff
values. The source of the temperature data for the South Dakota GDD Monitor
is weekly data for 66 NWS Cooperative Stations and daily data from 10 SD-AWDN
stations operated by:
South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station
College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences
South Dakota State University.
The SD-AWDN stations are interrogated daily by the Office of Climate
and Weather Information, Agricultural Engineering Department
Growing Degree Days can be used to monitor and project critical stages
in crop production including planting, weed and pest control, and harvest problems.
This site
provides the tools to do that. Daily updates are provided at 12 South Dakota
Automatic weather stations, other bordering states, and 18 South Dakota Airports.
The set of 30 station have been selected for comparing the 1998 & 1999 growing
season to the normal period of 1961-90 and the crop years of 1991-1997. The Base
50 is the most common and is equivalent to the GDU used in seed corn literature.
The GDD accumulation begins on April 1, 2002 for the spring season. When
computing the GDD accumlation total for a crop, it should include only those
that have occured since the day of emergence. YOU will need to adjust the totals
in the tables substracting the total on the day of emergence from the total on the
current day.
It is good practice to record the growing degree days accumulation for the critical
growth stages and other dates such as planting and emergence, crop scouting dates, pest
and weed control activities along with precipitation, crop varieties, yields, and other
pertinent data.
The GDD information take into consideration the variation in the dates from year to
year caused by the seasonal shifts in temperature.
SD-AWDN Stations 2002 Growing Season Accumulative Totals
SD Airports 2002 Growing Season Daily Accumulative Totals
Daily Growing Degree Day Summaries for 1998 - 2001 Growing Seasons
SD-AWDN Stations 2001 Growing Season Daily Totals
SD Airports 2001 Growing Season Daily Accumulative Totals
SD-AWDN Stations 2000 Growing Season Daily Totals
SD Airports 2000 Growing Season Daily Totals
SD-AWDN Stations 1999 Growing Season Accumulative Totals
SD Airports 1999 Growing Season Daily Totals
SD-AWDN Accumulative Totals for 1996-1998
1998 Growing Season Daily GDD Summary
1997 Growing Season Daily GDD Summary
Return to SD Climate
1996 Growing Season Daily GDD Summary
Hourly and daily weather observations for the previous day
Created: 12 Feb 1996 Last modified: 7 February 2003