§5852 Agricultural Weather Office

Summary

The Secretary of Agriculture must create an Agricultural Weather Office inside the Department of Agriculture to run the National Agricultural Weather Information System. The Secretary must appoint a Director to lead the office and advise on weather, climate, and remote sensing. The office can work with the National Weather Service on forecasting and observations, hold training workshops for farmers, build better computer models, and make weather and climate information more useful and available. It can collect near‑real‑time standardized weather data from State systems, coordinate with other research programs, and involve the private sector. The office can give competitive research grants through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to schools, research centers, agencies, companies, and individuals. It can also fund States to set up state weather systems. Grant choices must favor work that helps prevent weather losses and warn of extremes (droughts, floods, freezes, storms), improves site‑specific forecasting, or studies weather’s economic and environmental effects on farming.