Illinois Climate Network: Daily Pest Degree-Day Accumulations
The growth of agricultural pests can be tracked by maintaining an account of the pest degree days or the "heat" accumulated during the pest’s development. This process involves a comparison of daily maximum and minimum temperatures to a base temperature, specific for a particular pest, above which development will occur.
The Illinois Climate Network (ICN), in cooperation the Department of Crop Sciences, has developed a pest degree day calculator that uses data collected from ICN's stations across the state.
Users begin by selecting the closest weather station to their location and the pest of interest. Degree-day accumulations for some pests have a specific calendar day when accumulations begin, such as January 1 each year. Accumulations for other pests are tied to specific, user-input events; such as the first trapping of adult pests, sighting of eggs, etc. One- and two-week degree-day projections are also included. Maps of degree-day totals and projections for the entire state are produced where appropriate.
All degree-day information is computed from data collected through the previous day.
