The aim of this work was to compare the daily averages of the air temperatures obtained by two meteorological stations, ECP (Principal Climatological Station) and PCD (Data Collect Platform), both located at the experimental campus of UFLA (Federal University of Lavras) in Lavras, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, and verify the effectiveness of temperature averages calculated through the equation proposed by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and for the arithmetic average of the values supplied by PCD in relation to the equation used by INMET (National Institute of Meteorology, Brazil), being this a reference. One analyzed data of consecutives two years, represented by the periods from 06/30 to 2004/12/31, with a total of 137 days of observation and 01/01 to 2005/12/04, with a total of 186 days of observation. The comparison between the two stations, showed a good agreement among the observed temperatures (r² > 0,90). With relation to the use of the equations, the one that calculates the temperature of the air using the arithmetic average, it presented better result (r² > 0,94). The equation used by FAO, demonstrated a small tendency in overestimating the temperature values.
Air temperature; temperature estimate; meteorological station
