Pam Knox

  • Severe drought reenters Georgia

    The latest Drought Monitor, issued this morning, shows an area of severe drought has developed in east-central Georgia in Screven, Jenkins, and Bulloch Counties.  This area is an extension of the severe drought which has been present in the Carolinas for the last few weeks.  The drought expansion is due to the continuation of warm…

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  • At 11 AM this morning the National Hurricane Center declared that Danny has been upgraded to hurricane status.  This makes the storm the first hurricane of the year.  On the satellite picture below you can see the beginning of an eye, which often appears about the time a storm reaches hurricane status.  Danny still has…

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  • Latest climate outlooks from NOAA

    This morning NOAA published their latest outlooks for the upcoming fall and winter climate.  Maps are shown below.  You can also get them at https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?lead=1. The outlook for September shows that Florida and southern Georgia and Alabama have the best chance of above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation, while other areas don’t have a strong…

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  • It’s just past halfway through August.  So far for the month, most of the Southeast is running about a degree above normal, although there are areas with below normal temperatures.  Precipitation is highest in Florida followed by Georgia and then Alabama.  The Carolinas are the driest part of the Southeast and that is where drought has…

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  • “Flash drought” in south central US

    USA Today published an article yesterday looking at the “flash” drought that is currently occurring in the southern US.  If you’ve never heard of the term “flash drought”, then you should know this is a term climatologists use for a drought which comes on very quickly and shows almost immediate impacts to crops and livestock.…

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  • Cows are one of the biggest producers of methane on Earth, although they are surpassed by methane emission as a byproduct of fracking.  Methane is one of the most efficient greenhouse gases, and increases in atmospheric methane are one of the major contributors to the rise in greenhouse gas impacts in the atmosphere. Now, scientists…

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  • TS Danny forms

    At 5 pm today the National Hurricane Center named Tropical Storm Danny as the fourth named storm of the year.  Danny is still far out to sea and it will take a week just to reach the Lesser Antilles, so we will not see anything for quite a while.  Danny is expected to become a…

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