FAWN has made a lot of progress in the last year. A new weather station was placed in Alachua, replacing the station in Gainesville, while a station has been added in Hastings, bringing the total number of weather stations to 17 (see the image at the right).

Another major step forward has been made in the way FAWN retreives data from the weather stations. In the past, this was accomplished using an email-based system. Now, data is collected from the weather stations and written directly to an SQL database. A new server has also been placed in the Lake County Extension Office to improve the collection time of the Tavares, Okahumpka and Umatilla stations to every 15 minutes.

1999 has also seen a lot of progress made in the funding for FAWN. The USDA has agreed to buy the equipment for a new site in Brooksville and a grant proposal has been written and submitted to the Division of Emergency Management to complete the installation of the network into the panhandle. Funds have also been acquired to create an A & P position for a website/database/application manager for FAWN.

The FAWN team has worked hard to promote the service this last year, visiting a dozen or so trade shows and grower's meetings around the state. The local weatherman here in Gainesville even uses data from the Alachua station in his daily forecast! We encourage growers to use the system and give us your comments to make improvements. You can access FAWN through the FAWN Web Site or through the Interactive Voice Response System.

When you travel or you are away from your computer, you can access the FAWN network data through a conventional telephone.

To use the FAWN Dial-up system:

(1) Dial (352)846-3100

(2) Enter a two digit weather station number shown in the table below, or select a location.

(3) Listen to the latest weather data from FAWN.

Special thanks need to be expressed to the Ag Weather Task Force for the guidance and support they provided for FAWN. The members are:

Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association

Florida Citrus Mutual

Florida Dept of Agriculture

UF/IFAS

Florida Farm Bureau

Florida Nurseryman and Growers Association