Interactive Tool Helps Growers Monitor Accumulated Chilling Hours for Fruit

Purdue University’s Midwestern Regional Climate Center launched a new interactive chilling hours tool to help growers more closely monitor accumulated chilling hours. The tool utilizes hourly data from hundreds of weather stations in all 50 U.S. states and lets users customize start dates and temperature ranges for accumulated chilling hours. The tool can help growers monitor the stage of dormancy for different fruit tree species so that they can take action to prevent trees from breaking dormancy, if needed, and can understand how fruit quality might be affected if adequate chilling hours don’t accumulate. The tool, a collaboration between the Midwestern Regional Climate Center and USDA’s Midwest Climate Hub, is the most recent in a series that includes a Freeze Date Tool, a Snowfall Climatology Toolbox, and other Ag-Climate Tools.
Related ATTRA publication: Climate Change and Perennial Fruit and Nut Production: Investing in Resilience in Uncertain Times