Frost Maps and Data

Frost is a major challenge for farmers in many parts of the world. Frost can occur when air temperatures fall below freezing, and can have a drastic effect upon the entire plant or affect only a small part of the plant tissue. The result may reduce the product quality, reduce the crop yield, or worse. Frost mapping and forecasting can potentially reduce frost damage because it provides growers with the opportunity to prepare for frost events. Predicting when the temperature falls to a critical value is important for starting active frost protection methods. Satellite datasets are valuable in assessing the spatial extent of the temperature variability across the landscape. Coupled with weather forecasting and on-the-ground observations, this frost monitoring and forecasting effort aims at reducing the crop vulnerabilities with better identification of conditions on the ground, corroborated with a few, strategic in situ observations in the field, and with the help of numerical weather forecasts. This effort is a joint collaboration among Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD)/SERVIR, the Kenya Meteorological Service (KMS), and the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya (TRFK).