ABSTRACT
T his chapter follows the approach of Dolan et al. (2001) and Meinke and Stone (2005) by considering use of weather data in agricultural decisionmaking as a critical part of climate change adaptation. Seasonal variability and extremes are as much a part of climate change as changes in long-run temperature or precipitation means (Parry and Carter 1985; Smit et al. 2000; Wandel and Smit 2000; Dolan et al. 2001). A large source of anticipated vulnerability to climate change in agriculture is difficulty in coping with weather extremes (Smit et al. 2001). Using weather information to anticipate and respond to shorter-run climate variability will be a crucial way for agricultural producers to adapt to long-run climate change.
