At the 2023 Oklahoma Ag Expo, Associate Farm Editor, Reagan Calk, had the chance to visit with the Mesonet Agricultural Coordinator, Wes Lee, about the tools the Mesonet has available for producers and an outlook on weather.
While the Oklahoma Mesonet website is a great tool, it is also available as an app through Google Play and in the App Store.
“All of our value-added tools, for the most part, are only on our website,” Lee said. “A release that we made to the website in February of this year made most of the website mobile-friendly where you can access it directly from your phone and not have to go back to the office to look at that.”
For ag tools and value-added tools, Lee said it is best to use the website. The website also features an agriculture tab, which features tools for all different kinds of commodities for producers to utilize.
“In our ag section, we currently have 16 different ag tools for producers to look at,” Lee said. “Specifically for wheat, we have four tools for them to choose from.”
Those tools for wheat producers include degree days, drift risk advisor (pesticide tool), irrigation scheduler, and first-hollow stem advisor.
Regarding the weather, Lee said El Niño is in full swing, but the degree of the El Niño has yet to be seen.
“What still has not been determined for sure, is how strong El Niño is going to be,” Lee said. “Those water temperatures on the Pacific on the Equator- there is a huge difference between 1.5 degrees Celsius above normal and 2 degrees Celsius above normal.”
Wetter winters occur during very strong El Niño, Lee said, but it is too soon to see if those conditions will come during the wheat growing season.
With recent rains, Lee said soil moisture conditions are good outside of the far western Oklahoma and the Panhandle.
“About 90 percent of the state has very good soil moistures down to about 12 or 16 inches, so the wheat crop should not be struggling in most locations right now,” Lee said. “We hope this El Nino pattern is going to bring us at least normal, if not above-normal, rainfall throughout the rest of this growing season, so hopefully, moisture will not be our limiting factor like it has the last couple of years.”
