Winemakers on both coasts of the United States, in northern California and southeastern Virginia, expressed the need to know when frost could damage their grapes. Frost can be extremely damaging to grapes (depending on the grape stage), and ruin an entire harvest if grapes are not picked and/or protected before a frost.
In our changing climate, warmer temperatures are causing the vine cycle to start early, increasing the risk of frost episodes outside the traditional growing season and/or when the grapes are already at a more sensitive stage to frost. For example, after not having a damaging frost event since 1991, the Bordeaux region of France experienced major frost episodes in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Monarch built a customized and interactive 3-day frost forecast model where the winemaker could access the zoom-able map product on a computer or mobile device. In one particular instance, the Virginia winemaker would not have known about a damaging frost risk if not for Monarch. A particular frost event was forecast to occur outside the traditional growing season, which meant other weather services were not issuing frost/freeze products at the time. Therefore, if not for Monarch’s forecast, the winemaker would not have known or been able to prepare for the frost risk.
About Monarch Weather & Climate Intelligence
We are a woman-owned business with a team of Certified Consulting Meteorologists (CCM) and GIS Analysts, providing meteorological and climate services via custom forecasting, modeling and advisory within the insurance, tech, energy, real estate, transportation and agricultural sectors.
Visit our website www.monarchweather.com or message us directly Team@MonarchWeather.com.
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