Pam Knox
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While for many farmers, drought causes severe economic hardship, a new study of California farmers shows that some of them are doing very well economically in spite of over four years of drought, according to an article in AgWeb yesterday. Some of the profits come from the surging value of crops like almonds, while others…
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Here is an image from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center that shows a US map of the tornadoes that were observed across the United States in 2015. There are also state-by-state statistics showing which states received more tornadoes than average and which received less. Note that all of the Southeast experienced below-normal numbers of tornadoes last…
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NOAA has published a new update and outlook for the current El Niño and what is likely to happen next summer. You can view it here.
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The Packer reported today that the Florida grapefruit season is expected to end earlier than usual this year due to problems caused by El Nino conditions in the state. USDA reported that the crop was the lowest in three decades, according to the report. Fall and early winter brought warmer than normal temperatures and the…
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You might not consider winter a time to get a heat wave, but one accepted definition of a heat wave is three or more consecutive days with temperatures at least five degrees above average. So media reports of a “heat wave” in Calgary are correct, even if the temperatures seem low to us in the Southeast. According…
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Another “great” historical weather event happened in February 1899 when a frigid airmass moved from west to east through the country, dropping temperatures and causing the deaths of over 100 people as well as killing numerous livestock and destroying numerous crops, including a large number of orchards in Georgia. You can read more about this…
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William Schmitz of the Southeast Regional Climate Center put together a scorecard of how the rainfall conditions this winter (December to February to date) compare to previous strong El Niño events. You can see the scorecard at https://www.sercc.com/ElNinoRainScorecard.pdf. The scorecard shows that the 1997-98 event set records across the region for the wettest DJF on record.…
Posted in: Climate summaries