Yesterday’s USDA blog “Farmers go digital to confront changing growing conditions” highlights agricultural tools developed for the Midwest by the U2U group (“Useful to Usable”) at Purdue University and affiliated universities which show variations in climate patterns by El Nino phase and how they affect yields and other agricultural variables.  You can see one of their tools, the Climate Pattern Viewer, by going here.

We have a similar tool in the Southeast at AgroClimate.org.  This web site was developed to provide producers in the Southeast with information on how El Nino and La Nina affect local climate conditions, giving farmers a heads-up on what to expect in upcoming seasons.  While we are still in neutral conditions now, a weak El Nino has a better-than-even chance of forming and affecting the weather in some parts of the Southeast this coming winter.  This could make for cooler and wetter conditions than normal in south Alabama and Georgia and into Florida.