USDA
type: Concept

USDA/OCE/WC/PUBS
type: Concept
in scheme: providers
definition: The Joint Agricultural Weather Facility (JAWF), located in USDA?s South Building in Washington D.C., is jointly operated by USDA?s Office of the Chief Economist (OCE)/World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) and the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), and the U.S. Department of Commerce?s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Weather Service (NWS)/National Center For Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/Climate Prediction Center (CPC). Created in 1978, the primary mission of the JAWF is to routinely collect global weather data and agricultural information to determine the impact of growing-season weather conditions on crop and livestock production prospects. The JAWF staff includes NWS meteorologists and WAOB agricultural meteorologists, working as a team to provide weather information and products, weather analyses, weather data for more than 6000 stations around the globe, weather-satellite imagery, and interpretation of meteorological information for use in agricultural assessments. A primary source of weather information is the worldwide network of meteorological station data transmitted over the World Meteorological Organization?s Global Telecommunication System (WMO/GTS) and provided to JAWF through NOAA?s state of the art data transfer and network systems. The WAOB agricultural meteorologists merge these data with climatological analyses and global agronomic data to arrive at the weather?s impact on agricultural production. Global weather and crop conditions are monitored on a daily basis and agricultural assessments are prepared weekly to keep the Nation?s growers, exporters, USDA commodity analysts, as well as the Secretary of Agriculture and top staff, informed of worldwide weather-related developments and their effects on crops and livestock. The JAWF serves as the focal point in USDA for weather and climate information and impact assessments. Inputs from the JAWF are integrated into USDA?s monthly foreign crop production …