Agriculture is one of the most weather sensitive production systems and weather data are crucial factors influencing decisions at either individual fann and regional levels. Rapid technological progress in the last few years allows us to improve both, weather data collection and dissemination systems. The paper discussed the problem of establishing agricultural meteorological networks (AMN) on the basis of the subject literature combined with the practical, first-hand experience gained by the author during his stay in the USA.
In this paper an attempt was undertaken to estimate sunshine value for the period of 1971 - 1990 for three chosen localities of Olsztyn voivodeship, as well as its effect on potato yields. The highest sum of sunshine hours during the investigated 20-year period was found in Tomaszkowo (1348 h), the lowest sum was in Łężany (797 h). Coefficient of variation ranged from 11.34 in Tomaszkowo to 11.66 in Łężany. For potato yielding, the most favourable sunshine influence has been proved to be from 1100 to 1200 h.