For NaRM 2st Year Regular

Students

By : Abere A. (MSc.)
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 INTRODUCTION

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 1.1 Concepts and Definitions of key terms
Weather and Climate
Weather: Involves the description of the atmospheric
condition at a single instant of time for a single
occurrence.
 We expect the weather to change a lot from day to day
(usually 24 hours).
 It is a state of the atmosphere at a given time and place.
 It is constantly changing, highly variable and relatively
unpredictable.

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Cont’d
It is a day to day state of the atmosphere.
Comprised of
Air temperature
Air pressure
Humidity
Clouds
Precipitation
Visibility
Wind

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 What causes weather?
 Because the Earth is round and not flat, the Sun's rays
don't fall evenly on the land and oceans.
 The Sun shines more directly near the equator bringing
these areas more warm.
 However, the polar regions are at such an angle to the
Sun that they get little or no sunlight during the winter,
causing colder temperatures.
 These differences in temperature create a restless
movement of air and water in great swirling currents to
distribute heat energy from the Sun across the planet.

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 Why do we have seasons?
 As the earth rotations on its axis, producing night and day, it also moves
about the sun in an elliptical (elongated circle) orbit that requires about
365 1/4 days to complete
 Seasons occur because Earth is tilted on its axis relative to the orbital
plane, the invisible, flat disc where most objects in the solar system
orbit the sun.
 In June, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, the
sun's rays hit it for a greater part of the day than in winter.
 The Earth rotates on its own axis.

 So the direction of the earth's rotation is considered as from west to east.

 The earth rotates once in 24 hours.

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  The seasons are defined as spring (March, April, May),
summer (June, July, August), autumn (September,
October, November) and winter (December, January,
February).
 Summer means one of four seasons, traditionally the
second, marked by the longest and typically hottest days of
the year due to the inclination of the earth and thermal
interval.
 Typically regarded as being from june 21 to September 22 or
23 in parts of the USA, the months of june, july and
August in the united kingdom and the months of
december, January and February in the southern
hemisphere,
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 whereas
 Winter means traditionally the fourth of the four
seasons, typically regarded as being from december 23
to march 20 in continental regions of the northern
hemisphere or the months of june, july and
august in the southern hemisphere.
 It is the time when the sun is lowest in the sky, resulting
in short days, and the time of year with the lowest
atmospheric temperatures for the region.

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Cont’d
Climate: is generally defined as the average weather at a
given point and time of year, over a long period (typically
25 - 30 years).

 Climate may be thought of as an average of weather

conditions over a period of time including the probability
for distributions from this average.

 It varies slowly and is highly predictable.

 We expect the climate to remain relatively constant.

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Cont’d

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Cont’d

Climate is what you expect, but weather is what

you actually get.

Weather tells you what to wear today … climate

tells you what clothes to buy”

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 Meteorology and Climatology

Meteorology: is the study of the earth’s atmosphere and

especially the study of weather.

 Refers to the physical processes of the atmospheric

conditions

It is the physics of air

It is the system of harvesting solar radiation

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Cont’d
Meteorology is divided into a number of specialized
sciences.

Physical meteorology
Dynamic meteorology
Synoptic meteorology
Agricultural meteorology
Micrometeorology

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Cont’d
Physical meteorology deals with the physical aspects
of the atmosphere, such as the formation of:
Clouds
Rain
Thunderstorms and
Lightning
Dynamic meteorology the study of the winds and the
laws that govern atmospheric motion.

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Cont’d
Synoptic meteorology is the study and analysis of large
weather systems that exist for more than one day.
Example: Weather forecasting

Agricultural meteorology deals with weather and its

relationship to crops and vegetation.

Micrometeorology the study of atmospheric conditions

over an area smaller than 1 sq. km.

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Cont’d

Climatology: deals with the scientific study of “climate” and

the analysis of the causes of climatic differences and
changes and their practical consequences.

It seeks to describe and explain the nature of climate: why

it vary from place to place and

How it is related to other elements of the natural

environment and human activities

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 1.2. The Scope of Climatology and Agr-Meteorology

 Weather and climate is a resource and considered as basic

input or resources in

Agricultural planning
Every plant process related with growth
development and
Yield of a crop is affected by weather.
Purpose of agrometeorology is transforming knowledge on
climate to useful information for agriculture.

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  Agricultural meteorology:
 A branch of applied meteorology which investigates the
physical conditions of the environment of growing plants or
animal organisms.
 A science concerned with the application of meteorology to
the measurement and analysis of the physical environment
in agricultural systems.
 The word ‘Agro meteorology’ is the abbreviated form of
agricultural meteorology.
 To study the interaction between meteorological and
hydrological factors on the one hand and agriculture in the
widest sense, including horticulture, animal husbandry and
forestry on the other (WMO).

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  Object of Agrometeorology: To understand/ integrate the
relationship between meteorological conditions and agricultural
production;
Meteorological conditions:
weather;
climate;
Agricultural production:
field and garden crops;
 forestry;
livestock breeding;

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 Meteorology Agricultural meteorology
Branch of atmospheric physics Branch of applied meteorology or a
branch of agriculture as it deals
with agriculture
It is a weather science It is a product of agriculture and
meteorology
It is a physical science It is a biophysical science
It aims at weather forecasting It aims at improving quantity and
quality of crop production through
meteorological skills
Weather service is the concern Agro advisory service to the
farmers is the concern based on
weather forecast
It is a linking science to the society It is a linking science to the farming
community
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  Importance of Agro metrology to crop production
Helps in planning cropping patterns/systems.
 Selection of sowing dates for optimum crop yields.
 Cost effective ploughing, harrowing, weeding etc.
 Reducing losses of applied chemicals and fertilizers.
Careful irrigation to crops.
 Efficient harvesting of all crops.
 Reducing or eliminating outbreak of pests and diseases.
Efficient management of soils which are formed out of
weather action.

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 Agricultural meteorology future scope
To study climatic resources of a given area for effective
crop planning.
To evolve weather based effective farm operations.
To study crop weather relationships in all important crops
and forecast crop yields based on agro climatic and
spectral indices using remote sensing.
To study the relationship between weather factors and
incidence of pests and diseases of various crops.
To delineate climatic/agro ecological/agro
climatic zones for defining agro climatic analogues so as
to make effective and fast transfer of technology for
improving crop yields.
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  To prepare crop weather diagrams and crop weather calendars.
 To develop crop growth simulation models for
assessing/obtaining potential yields in different agro climatic
zones.
 To monitor agricultural droughts on crop-wise for effective
drought management.
 To develop weather based agro advisories to sustain crop
production utilizing various types of weather forecast and
seasonal climate forecast.
 To investigate microclimatic aspects of crop canopy in order
to modify them for increased crop growth
 To study the influence of weather on soil environment on
which the crop is grown
 To investigate the influence of weather in protected environ.

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  Managing weather abnormalities like heavy rainfall, floods,
drought etc. This can be achieved by
 (a) Protection: When rain is forecast avoid irrigation.
But, when frost is forecast apply irrigation.
(b) Avoidance: Avoid fertilizer and chemical sprays
when rain is forecast
 (c) Mitigation: Use shelter belts against cold and heat
waves.
 Effective environmental protection.
 Avoiding or minimizing losses due to forest fires

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  Task of Agrometeorology:
Detecting the effects of meteorological
conditions on:
Plants,
Processes of plant production and
Activities associated with plant production;

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 1.3 Application of Climatology and Meteorology on
Agriculture

 The application of meteorology to agriculture is essential, since

every facet of agricultural activity depends on the weather.
 The successful application of weather and climate information
needs to integrate three components: data, analysis, and
users, therefore, the ultimate goal of any application is to serve
the needs of the users.
 A solid foundation of data is a prerequisite for successful
agricultural meteorological applications.
 Then an analysis of these data is needed that tries to solve or
address an agricultural problem.

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 Benefits derived from applications
 Many benefits result from the application of meteorological
services to agriculture.
The productivity of a region or a particular enterprise
may be increased by the reduction of many kinds of loss
resulting from unfavourable climate and weather, and
also by the more rational use of labour and
equipment.
 Greater economy of effort is achieved on the farm,
largely by the reduction of activities that have little value
or are potentially harmful.
All of these increase the competitiveness of production,
reduce risk and help to reduce the cost of the final
products.
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 Applications for farmers or groups of farmers
 Improvements to production
 Irrigation
 In its broadest terms, irrigation involves water balance
calculations based on rainfall, estimation of water
infiltration (effective rainfall), runoff,
evapotranspiration (ET), and soil moisture.
 Shelter from the wind
 Windbreaks as structures that reduce wind speed and
shelterbelts as rows of trees planted for wind protection.
 Shade .

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 The scope of Meteorology can be illustrated through the
following few applications:-
1. Characterization of agricultural climate:
For determining:
Crop growing season
Solar radiation
Air temperature
Precipitation, wind, humidity etc.
For maximum crop production and economical benefits.

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Cont’d
2. Crop planning for stability in production:
 To reduce risk of crop failure on climatic part
 So as to get stabilized yields even under weather
adversity,
 Suitable crops/cropping patterns/contingent cropping
planning
3. Crop management:
 Management of crop involves various farm operations
such as, sowing & fertilizer application.
 Plant protection, irrigation scheduling, harvesting
etc. can be carried out on the basis of specially tailored
weather support.
 For this the use of operational forecasts, available from
agro met advisories, is made.
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Cont’d
4. Crop Monitoring:
 To check crop health and growth performance of a crop

5. Crop modeling and yield –climate relationship:

 Suitable crop models, devised for the purpose can provide
information or predict the results about the growth and
yield when the current and past weather data is used.

6. Research in crop –climate relationship:

 Agro-meteorology can help to understand crop-climate
relationship so as to resolve complexities of plant process
in relation to its micro climate.
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Cont’d
7. Climate as a tool to analyze soil moisture stress:
 Soil moisture can be exactly determined from climatic
water balance method, Which is used to diagnose the soil
moisture stress, drought and necessary protective
measures

8. Soil formation:
 Soil formation process depend on climatic factors like
temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind etc,
 Thus climate is a major factor in soil formation and
development.

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