Pam Knox

  • Christmas lights from space

    Even  though this has nothing to do with climate and agriculture, I still find this a fascinating study.  The Washington Post published an article yesterday on a new NASA-based study showing major increases in lighting as viewed from satellites in December compared to other times of year.  They attribute it to increases in lighting from…

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  • Interesting climate stories in the news

    There are climate stories in the news almost every day.  Here are three that I thought were especially interesting this week. Men’s Journal provided a balanced discussion of GMOs and their place in agriculture.  I’m not going to discuss the GMO controversy (other than to note that this is a topic that, like vaccination and…

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  • Growing Georgia posted a recent article from an Ohio State University expert discussing the extra nutritional needs of cattle and other livestock in colder weather.  While we don’t have as frigid weather as other parts of the US here in the Southeast, it is still good to be reminded of ways to keep our animals…

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  • NOAA released their November 2014 summary for the globe today, and it showed that November was the 7th warmest on record for the earth as a whole, although the Southeast and the eastern half of the US was very cold throughout the month.  For the year to date, 2014 is the warmest on record for…

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  • Climate and the future of agriculture

    Farm Industry News published a very interesting panel discussion on the future of farming across the world in the face of changing climate, consumer demands, and other challenges.  You can find it at https://farmindustrynews.com/precision-farming/future-farming. One of the themes that come up in the discussion over and over again is the important of water availability and…

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  • The rest of the year

    With only two weeks to go in the year, it is worth taking a first look at how the year is likely to end up.  The maps below show the temperature and precipitation departures for the year to date.  These maps are from the High Plains Regional Climate Center and you can update them at https://www.hprcc.unl.edu/maps/current/.…

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  • Two chances for rain this week

    The QPF maps for the US show that the Southeast has two chances for rain in the coming week.  Both of them have the highest chance of occurring in the northwestern part of the region. The Florida peninsula is not expected to get any rain from these systems.  The first shot will come on Monday…

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