Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Effect Of Weather Station Density On Crop Yield Forecasts, M. Denice Mccormick

Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) uses regression models to forecast yield for crops such as corn, soybeans and winter wheat. Analyses were conducted on the use of precipitation data in these regression models (McCormick and Birkett 1992, and McCormick 1993). Precipitation data are obtained from two sources. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) supplies historic precipitation data used for developing regression model parameters. The Climate Analysis Center (CAC) supplies current year precipitation data that are used as regression model input. CAC weather station density is sparse across the U.S. in many major agricultural areas compared to NCDC weather station …