Validation of a regional agro-meteorological network in Central Italy
using ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis
Abstract
During the analysis - funded by The European Agricultural Fund for Rural
Development (EAFRD) that has financed the EU’s contribution to rural
development program in Umbria (Italy) – of meteorological data from
automatic weather stations following the WMO requirements [1], it
has become evident the need of using the newest global climatic data
(ERA5, ECMWF [2]) to compute indices to perform an extended quality
control over data and to give climate information to the end users. The
peculiar regional environment with strong orographic modulation of the
Umbria region and the consequent impact over the precipitation field
together with the signal of a seasonal and intra-seasonal change of the
temperature distribution, show a complex impact of the climate change
over the Umbria region and broadly over Central Italy. This work is
trying to show how to account for the impact of climate change over the
phenology of vineyards using different indices as SPI , SPEI, and
Winkler starting from the new reanalysis dataset with enhanced
resolution in time and space. Moreover, within this project agronomists
and plant pathologists are cooperating with meteorological scientists to
analyze and relate weather epidemic development in order to reduce the
economic impact and environmental effects of airborne plant disease
epidemics and ultimately to make the end-users timely decisions about
the effective and economical application of fungicides and about other
tactics to manage plant diseases. [1] WMO. Guide to agricultural
meteorological practices (WMO-no. 134). World Meteorological
Organization: Geneva, Switzerland, 2010. [2]
https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/archive-datasets/reanalysis-datasets/era5