Pam Knox

  • A busy time of year tornado-wise

    It’s no surprise that we are seeing a lot of activity in the severe weather department this week.  Historically, this has been a very active time of year across the US, and it’s the main peak of severe weather activity in the Southeast, although we have a secondary peak in fall and tornadoes can and…

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  • Yesterday’s severe weather outbreak netted a bunch of tornadoes (21 as yet unconfirmed) and many reports of straight-line wind damage.  Today people will be cleaning up from those messes.  But they should also be preparing for Wednesday’s two or three rounds of what could be even more widespread severe weather, with a higher likelihood of…

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  • The Packer noted today that Vidalia onion farmers are optimistic about this year’s harvest.  The mild winter created good conditions for the onions, and they largely missed the impacts of the mid-month frost.  The result is expected to be a generous harvest of onions, many on the large size even with an earlier than usual…

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  • The latest monthly climate summary for March 2017 for North Carolina is now available.  You can read it at https://climate.ncsu.edu/climateblog?id=232&h=5666e5c1. You can read the Florida climate summary for March 2017 at https://climatecenter.fsu.edu/products-services/summaries?id=508.

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  • The record of the blossoming date of cherry trees in Kyoto, Japan, is one of the longest phenological records climatologists have.  Historical information on the blossom date goes back all the way to 812 AD, although nearly continuous records are not available until 1406 AD.  The dates have recently been compiled into a single record,…

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  • Today there is a large tornado outbreak underway in Louisiana, and the system is moving east and will affect our area on Monday.  The screen capture of today’s radar below shows not only a strong line of severe storms moving through Louisiana today but multiple individual supercell thunderstorms ahead of the line.  Many of these…

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  • The Vegetable and Specialty Crop News published an article this week on the impact of weather on Florida peaches.  Research is showing that peach leaf rust is a big issue for Florida peaches. According to the article, “Due to Florida’s hot, humid and rainy summers, peaches are much more susceptible to the rust. The disease can…

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