Our weather station provides lots of information to help us manage the orchard – we are connected to computers at Cornell University. Their computer models for apple diseases (scab, fire blight, etc.) and insects ( apple maggot, coddling moth etc.) use data from our station to tell us when there will be an infection period or a the hatch of a new generation of bugs.
In 2010 Vermont was the first state after New York to join their network of stations – there are now over 500 stations in 23 states. You can see them at newa.cornell.edu