Pam Knox

  • The latest monthly outlook for July 2017 was released today by the Climate Prediction Center.  It shows that most of the Southeast is in equal chance of above, near or below normal temperatures, although there is a slight trend towards warmer temperatures along the coasts and in southern Florida. A lot of the Southeast is…

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  • My meeting in Asheville NC ended today with presentations from a number of federal agencies who are involved in collecting and disseminating climate information.  The biggest of all is the National Centers for Environmental Information, previously called the National Climatic Data Center, which is mainly located in Asheville just down the street from where we…

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  • Could these beans save the world?

    Sometimes it takes me a while to find an interesting story.  This 2015 story on dry beans from Modern Farmer discusses a cross between common beans like white or kidney and the tepary bean.  The tepary bean is much less sensitive to hot temperatures than the common beans, and the crosses looks like they will…

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  • All drought gone from the Southeast

    This week’s Drought Monitor shows the last bit of drought is gone from the Southeast after recent rains.  Just a few patches of abnormally dry conditions are left due to lingering precipitation deficits.  Cooler conditions associated with the rain and clouds also mean that many areas of the Southeast are expected to be below normal…

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  • A new study released this week indicates that the American South will feel the worst economic effects of a warming climate.  Articles in The Atlantic here and in the New York Times here describe the results of the study published today in Science which use a new economic method of calculating economic costs by calculating…

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  • Recent studies on the rate at which sea level is rising due to warmer ocean water and melting ice sheets show that not only is sea level rising in most areas, but the rate at which it is rising is increasing.  This has important implications for coastal communities, which often do planning based on the…

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  • One of the products featured at this week’s AASC meeting in Asheville is a new atlas of precipitation patterns and probabilities in the Carolinas which was developed by the Carolinas RISA project in conjunction with the National Integrated Drought Information System in the past few years.  It provides a number of maps and other resources…

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