An information system for preventive alerting of frost episodes in the Central Region of Chile

Frosts are one of the main risks faced by farmers during the winter and spring seasons. These events can cause significant damage to cultivations and crops. In Chile, these frosts generate significant losses in the agricultural production sector, causing crop losses of an entire year and compromising the income of the following year, especially fruit and wine growers. In this work we developed an information system for online monitoring of the weather conditions in the central Region of Chile. This is associated to data recorded on different zones by an automatic weather station (AWS) which data is publicly available. The systems automatically process this data in order to give a preventive alert for frost episodes. The system integrates different components including a prediction module based on historical agro-meteorological information, which communicates with an Application/Monitoring Predictions module. The system is able to deliver an alert efficiently and up to 12 hours earlier than the occurrence of a frost episode.