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About
Eric Snodgrass is a Principal Atmospheric Scientist for Conduit, where he develops predictive, analytical software solutions to manage weather risk for global production agriculture. He provides frequent weather updates that focus on how high-impact weather events influence global agriculture productivity. His current research uses machine learning to better understand field-level weather impacts on yields in the US and to increase confidence in long-range weather prediction. He presents his research as a featured speaker at over 100 conferences annually where he provides logistical guidance and solutions to weather-sensitive financial institutions, farmers, commodity traders, and other stakeholders. He was recently awarded the Educator Award in 2023 for Distinguished Service to America’s High Technology Agriculture by the Mid-America CropLife Association.
Snodgrass is a co-founder of Global Weather and Climate Logistics, LLC and Agrible, Inc. which were both acquired by Nutrien Ag Solutions in 2018. Eric worked at Nutrien from 2019 through 2024 as a Sr. Science Fellow before transitioning to Conduit. From 2006-2019, Eric was the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he taught over 20,000 students across a wide range of coursework in Atmospheric Science. He won many prestigious teaching awards at the University of Illinois including the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Excellence Award, the Campus Teaching Excellence Award, and the Campus Teaching Excellent Award in Online and Distance Education.
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Video Clips
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Topics
HIGH IMPACT METEOROLOGY
Weather risk in production agriculture is ubiquitous and the successful execution of a crop plan requires accurate weather forecasting and analysis. We plan our operations based on weather averages and our experiences over recent growing seasons, but each year presents a new set of weather challenges. In this talk, we will focus on how to use the abundance of weather data to stay ahead to disruptive weather events. We will talk about the limits of predictability for weather events and learn about the resources available to monitor changes in longer-range forecasts. We will review the major lessons from the last growing season and talk about your state’s risk from severe storms – especially high winds, hail events, and tornadoes. We will talk about the big seasonal drivers like El Niño and La Niña discuss the outlook for the next spring and summer. We will finish with a discussion about the next growing season in South America, which competes directly with our crops.Seismic Shifts In Predictive Science: The Future of Weather/Climate
The US is built for agriculture. The Plains and Mid-West latitude, elevation, soil types, prevailing weather patterns, and distinct meteorological seasons set up this region to be one of the most agriculturally productive regions in the world. During the first half this session, we will discuss long-term trends in weather patterns and talk about new discoveries in climate science that help us understand potential shifts in our climate system. We will approach this discussion from a risk analysis and scenario planning perspective and ask big questions about what the climate pattern look like in the future. The second part of this breakout will be devoted to disruptive technology in predictive science. We will talk about advancements in AI and ML (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) and their application to predicting weather that impacts ag. We will also dive a bit more deeply into where AI may change our ag practices and increase efficiency, spot problems sooner, estimate yields more accurately, and change the way we interact with one of our most valuable assets – the data we collect when farming.
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Testimonials
6 people have recommended this speaker
“I really appreciated the Tiller Group and their dynamic professionalism that secured Eric for our event. Rich did a great job gathering all the details and ensuring we had everything we needed covered in the topic and delivering it all at the appropriate time. Really appreciated and enjoyed working with this group!”
“Eric did a great job. Weather isn’t a topic bankers are used to hearing about and they were glued to every word.”
“Eric Snodgrass was terrific. He easily combines what is usually a dull topic of weather with comedy. He hit it out of the park. The best weather speaker we have heard. Would recommend him to anyone.”
“He was extremely knowledgeable on his subject matter, witty and funny. He kept our growers engaged and delighted throughout his presentation. He was PERFECT!”
“Both speakers did an excellent job. Eric gives a really good assessment of the current weather and provides what to look at next spring to tell what's probably going to happen next summer. Very entertaining, easy to listen to, and informative.”
“Some of the comments I heard from those in attendance were: "outstanding" "captivating" "really enjoyable & informative" "could have listened to him another hour", etc. The bottom line is that as a meeting planner I was very pleased. I thought his presentation was "right on" for our group.”
“Eric did a great job. Weather isn’t a topic bankers are used to hearing about and they were glued to every word.”