Pam Knox
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As the climate shifts to warmer conditions and higher carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as well as more variable rainfall, plant breeders are working hard to produce new varieties of crops that are better suited to the new conditions. This story from Modern Farmer discusses how plant geneticists are working to develop high-yielding, stress-resistant cultivars…
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This week’s Drought Monitor map shows that there is still moderate drought (D1) and abnormally dry conditions (D0) in the Carolinas and Virginia. The map was produced with a cutoff of Tuesday, so the rain that is falling there today will probably reduce the dry conditions in next week’s map. Florida’s dry conditions were significantly…
Posted in: Drought -
As I am writing, the rain from TS Elsa is falling outside. The tree frogs are going nuts! The remains of Elsa are crossing Georgia’s coastal plain tonight, and it is headed off to the northeast towards the Carolinas and Virginia. It is expected to be a tropical depression by the time it hits North…
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Because of Tropical Storm Elsa, currently moving north from Florida into Georgia, the wind pattern in the Southeast is particularly interesting today (and tomorrow, too). If you like to look at wind maps, here are a few sites you might enjoy. US wind map (black and white): https://hint.fm/wind/ Earth wind map: https://earth.nullschool.net/ (you can drag…
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You have been hearing about all the extremely hot temperatures that have recently occurred in the Pacific Northwest. How do they compare to the record high temperatures around the world? You can see a map of the records for each continent below. In 2021 so far, Kuwait has had the hottest temperature, with a reading…
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Elsa has restrengthened back to a hurricane after weakening earlier this weekend. It is now headed for the Cedar Key area in the Big Bend region of the northwest Florida Coast. I was interested to read from Brian McNulty, one of the hurricane specialists I follow, that “the last time a hurricane made landfall within…
Posted in: Tropical weather -
Growing conditions overall for the Southeast have been relatively good so far this year. Since April 1, most of the Southeast has been a little cooler than normal, except for the Florida Peninsula. Rainfall, as usual, has been variable, but generally most areas in Alabama, southern Georgia, and northern Florida have been fairly wet, although…
Posted in: Climate outlooks