Utah's Climate Reference Network (UCRN) is a collection of 16 automated weather stations that was acquired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's USRCRN program in 2015 https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/crn/usrcrn/. These stations, commissioned from 2009 to 2011 were designed to measure highly accurate air temperatures and precipitation. Stations are in pristine locations that have stable land ownership and are geographically distributed to best determine decadal to centurial temperature and precipitation trends for Utah. Since the transfer of ownership to the Utah Climate Center, each station's sensor suite has been enhanced. Cooperating partners in this retrofit endeavor include the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City and Apogee Instruments in Logan, UT. Stations have research grade sensors that measure solar radiation, wind, pressure, relative humidity, air and soil temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture.

Reference ET is calculated by the ASCE standardized reference ET equation (ASCE-EWRI 2005) - often referred to as the Penman-Monteith method. This method calculates an estimated reference ET for both short crops (similar to clipped grass) (ETo) and tall crops (similar to full-cover alfalfa) (ETr). The calculations are made utilizing individual site level information (latitude, longitude, and altitude) and measured variables (air temperature, humidity, wind, and solar radiation). Since actual ET (Eta) is both difficult and expensive to measure, a crop ET (ETc) can be calculated by the user as the product of ETo or ETr. Obtaining crop coefficients for specific crops and growth stages can be obtained from a variety of sources. The choice of whether to utilize ETo or ETr largely depends on the overall crop height.

UCRN temperature and precipitation data formats and integrity are consistent with USRCRN historical data. USRCRN data for these stations will be added in the near future.