NMSU's Sammis is Weather Wise
Date: Dec. 4, 1997
Editor: D'Lyn Ford, (505) 646-6528, dlford@nmsu.edu
LAS CRUCES -- Weather affects us every day. It determines our moods, damages our vehicles, contributes to our allergies and raises our insurance rates. It's also Ted Sammis' career.
As state climatologist, Sammis helps New Mexicans understand the impact of climate changes on the environment, human health and agricultural production. He is responsible for archiving weather data and distributing climate information to the public.
Climatologists are different from meteorologists, who provide weather forecasting or up-to-the-minute bulletins. Instead, Sammis, a hydrologist with New Mexico State University's Agricultural Experiment Station, uses a computerized data collection system to provide statewide weather reports for previous days, as well as historical information.
Electronic datalogger machines collect weather data from 25 sites throughout the state. These sensors monitor air temperature, relative humidity, soil temperature and moisture, precipitation, solar radiation and wind speed and direction.
NMSU's computer automatically updates its climate database each evening by calling every datalogger. "We have the only real-time climate data in the state," Sammis said.
In addition to electronic collection, more than 50 volunteers statewide record their daily local temperature and rainfall and send this information to the National Center for Data Collection. The NCDC maintains a national weather database dating back more than 100 years.
This wealth of information is accessible through the New Mexico Climate Center on the World Wide Web. For farmers, weather data can help determine when to plant and irrigate, and how long it takes insects to reach maturity. "All agriculture computer models deal with climate data, whether they're planting, drought, evapotranspiration or water runoff models," Sammis said.
One computer model available on the Climate Center web site uses climate and precipitation data to help New Mexico farmers plan flood irrigation for cotton, chile, alfalfa and other crops. Another model uses temperature data to estimate the development of the pecan nut casebearer, an insect pest that destroys pecan nuts by boring a hole through the outer shell.
Weather data also is helpful to teachers who want to prepare lesson plans about climate. Homeowners who want to know how long to wait between lawn waterings, and soil conservationists who want to understand chemical movement through soil can find information on the site. Even allergy sufferers can turn to the internet for air quality and pollen count levels.
The Climate Center web site receives approximately 90,000 "hits" or visitors per year.
"Currently, people are curious about the affects of El Niño," Sammis said.
El Niño is the rise in temperature of the ocean south of the equator. "When the ocean temperatures rise, it affects the weather pattern along the western coast of California and inland into New Mexico," Sammis said.
He predicts that the winter months will be colder and wetter because of El Niño and that New Mexico will receive more snow melt from Colorado during the spring and early summer. "I believe the Bureau of Reclamation has even lowered the reservoir levels in the state to prepare for that additional runoff."
Like most New Mexicans, Sammis will be looking to the sky to watch for the affects of El Niño. But it won't change his ideas about the state.
"I've lived in a lot of sunny places including Florida, California and Hawaii," he said. "Even after spending time each year in the tropics, I return to New Mexico because I like the climate."