FAWN has a long record of providing Florida growers with weather related information and tools to better protect their crops from freeze and frost damage. The FAWN Freeze Alert Tool has been developed in response to issues related to the 2009-2010 winter season in the Dover/Plant City area. This tool is a pilot project funded by the Southwest Florida Water Management District and was developed, with grower input, to assist growers in the more effective of use water during freeze events. The tool provides an alert in the form of a cell phone text or email message when the following conditions occur at a user selected FAWN site:

The critical minimum temperature selected by the user should be determined based on the following criteria:

1.IFAS recommendations.

2.Understanding of how topography, geography, and local weather conditions can cause differences between the temperature at the FAWN site and the temperature at or within the user's growing location. Due to these differences, the critical minimum temperature used for this tool may not be the same as the actual critical minimum temperature of the crop that needs cold protection. Therefore, the typical difference between the nearest FAWN site and the user's growing location must be established, and this can be accomplished by comparing local overnight temperatures during freeze events with those recorded at the nearest FAWN site. Then, the critical minimum temperature used for this tool can be determined. For example, if the critical minimum temperature of a crop is 34°F, and it is determined that the FAWN site is typically 2 degrees warmer than the location needing cold protection, then the critical minimum temperature used for this tool may need to be 36°F. Please note that these differences must be established for each field that needs cold protection since the difference between a FAWN site and multiple fields may not be the same.

Conditions of use of the FAWN Freeze Alert Tool

Participants are expected to evaluate the use of this tool during the 2010-2011 winter season. Users of this tool understand that the information provided by the University of Florida, IFAS, and FAWN is based on the temperature at the user selected FAWN site at the time the alert was sent, that FAWN only provides weather-related information, and that FAWN makes no recommendations regarding when to engage and/or disengage irrigation systems used for cold protection. It is, therefore, the user's responsibility to understand the relationship between the temperature at the user selected FAWN site and the user's growing location. Neither FAWN, IFAS, the University of Florida, nor the Southwest Florida Water Management District can be held responsible for damage to crops, crop plants, irrigation systems, or any other damage that may occur due to the improper use of user selected critical minimum temperatures or other information provided by FAWN, or failure to understand the effect of topography, geography, and/or weather conditions on temperatures at or within the user's growing location. The user agrees that use of the FAWN Freeze Alert Tool warrants acceptance of these conditions.