Pam Knox

  • I have never eaten a pawpaw, and have never even seen one, but I am fascinated by this story by Public Radio International about this native fruit, which used to be found in northern parts of the Southeast and across the eastern US.  I understand that the fruit does not transport or store well, which…

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  • People have been asking me if this is a record-setting winter for temperature.  Using the Southeast Regional Climate Center’s Perspectives tool at https://www.sercc.com/perspectives?user=true, you can look at maps which show the rankings for the month or season to date.  With just a couple of days left to go in the season, the maps show that while…

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  • An early look at the 2017 growing season

    Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you can’t help but have noticed the unusually warm spring we are experiencing in the Southeast so far this year (and even then, the rock would probably be getting warm!).  Observations from the National Phenology Network indicate that we are running 3-4 weeks ahead of normal based on…

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  • Southeastern fires by satellite

    NASA posted a new photo of fires that are burning around the Southeast.  Many of these fires are prescribed burns for people clearing land in preparation for field work.  Others are wildfires which have grown due to recent dry conditions.  You can read about the latest photo and view it at https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2017/fires-in-southeast-united-states-both-wild-and-prescribed.

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  • Today is a good day to remind folk that the Midwestern Regional Climate Center has a number of freeze map products available at their VIP site (Vegetation Impact Program).  The site has national maps for a number of different parameters like median date of last spring frost (you choose 32 F or 28 F).  Check…

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  • Since it’s been so warm, I’ve been getting questions about the likelihood of seeing more snow before this winter season ends.  I haven’t had time to do the statistics yet, but I ran across this older article from the NWS in Birmingham discussing the chances of getting snow in Alabama after a warm February that…

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  • Early start to pollen this year

    From my Facebook feed from Marshall Shepherd: “Here is one of many examples of how warming winters and earlier warming impact you. UGA geology professor Steven Holland has been tracking emergence of pollen in Athens since 2013. Note that it has gotten earlier and earlier. Already appearing in Feb 2017. Geez. Now, we cannot draw…

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