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Weather forecasts of the future could bring more detailed agronomic information

Weather forecasts of the future may offer farmers more actionable information than what they currently receive. 

Illinois state climatologist Trent Ford says research is underway to incorporate artificial intelligence into weather modeling to offer more precise agronomic forecasts.

“What we’re trying to do is integrate those forecasts with more agronomic information so we can get more targeted information of here’s the risk of having types of temperatures that can destroy the crop and then hopefully giving the producer more information to make the decisions,” he says.

He tells Brownfield the goal is to develop forecasts that can deliver more certainty to all types of producers.

“Weather forecast models work on these large scales.”  He says, “And so that’s where we’re integrating artificial intelligence to take the weather forecast model output, run it through an artificial intelligence model that can then interpret it in terms of these exact thresholds that are more relevant for agronomy.”

Ford says development of the AI model is ongoing.

Brownfield spoke with Ford at the 2026 Everything Local Conference in Springfield.