Prevailing temperatures and cold units in the Yaqui and Mayo Valleys, Mexico, during the 2021-2022 fall-winter crop season

Abstract

Agriculture is an activity dependent on climate and therefore highly sensitive to climatic changes and to the variability of weather factors, considering the temperature as the climatic element most related to annual crop productivity. The objective of this work was to analyze the temperature that prevailed in the Yaqui and Mayo Valleys during the crop season fall-winter 2021-2022. Data were obtained from the automated weather station network in the state of Sonora, which comprises nineteen stations in the Yaqui Valley and thirteen in the Mayo Valley. Data were captured in Excel with the hourly and daily recording from all the weather stations, covering from November 15, 2021 to April 30, 2022. The average of the minimum and maximum temperatures were calculated as well as the accumulation of cold units from each weather station. The temperature in the Yaqui and Mayo Valleys was rather similar oscillating between 2.14°C and 35.54°C with an average of 17.48°C. Cold units recorded in the Yaqui Valley were 572, while in the Mayo Valley there were 679. Most of the weather stations in the Mayo Valley recorded more than 600 cold units with the exception of Juliantabampo and Pueblo Mayo which recorded 454 and 465, respectively. In the Yaqui Valley, eleven weather stations recorded more than 600 cold units, seven recorded between 400 and 500, and only one recorded 314 cold units.