AWWA CONS51099

The California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) is a repository of weather data collected at more than 95 automated computerized CIMIS weather stations in California. Each night, data are transmitted to a main computer in Sacramento. The computer checks the data for quality, estimates reference evapotranspiration (an index of water use by all kinds of vegetation), and stores the data to provide on-demand, localized information. Water agencies, farmers, farm advisors, irrigation specialists, golf course and park managers, and other users develop sound irrigation schedules based on CIMIS data. Data is accessed by the public through a CIMIS dial-up service and the Internet. The number of calls to the computer has averaged about 23,000 each year in the last 3 years. In addition, the CIMIS web site received about 10,000 requests for data last year. The objectives of this study were to: inform participants about the information available from CIMIS, how to access CIMIS through the World Wide Web and phone dial-up, and how to download and open CIMIS files into a word processor or spreadsheet.