The skies across Georgia and other parts of the Southeast have been very hazy for the past couple of days due to smoke blowing south from the Canadian wildfires, although a lot of it is not reaching the surface but staying aloft. You can definitely see it in the gray skies, orange sun at sunset, and slightly cooler than predicted temperatures due to lower incoming sunlight. You might wonder what effect smoke has on the crops that are currently growing in the region. This article from Purdue University discusses the impact of the smoke on corn, which is especially sensitive to sunlight. It turns out to be more complicated that just reducing the amount of direct light reaching the leaves, because scattered light can increase the amount of light in the canopy, for example. Read more to see what other impacts it might have.
