Lee Shearer of the Athens Banner-Herald posted an interesting story today about land use changes across Georgia in the past few decades.  Climatologists know that changes in land from bare group crops to forests can cause changes in the local climate because of how it changes the energy balance.  Similarly, changing land from fields to cities can also change local climate by creating an “urban heat island” that raises local temperatures due to the thermal properties of concrete and other man-made materials.  So the changes in landscape across the state and the region are also expected to change the local climates as well as population, ecosystems and economies.  You can read the story here.

MODIS land view of agriculture near Athens GA from April 7, 2017