The Grower reported this week that TS Iselle destroyed a significant part of the papaya crop for this year, killing over 20 percent of all Hawaiian papaya trees. High winds and torrential rain also caused widespread power outages and flooding. However, because of advance notice of the storm’s movement, Maui…
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NOAA’s Climate.gov blog this week talks about several different climate patterns which may affect the predictability of seasonal climate. There are a number of different patterns which can affect climate over time, including long-term trends, El Nino, the North Atlantic (also sometimes called Arctic) Oscillation, and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation….
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The National Drought Monitor released their latest drought map today and severe drought (D2–dark tan on drought map) showed up for the first time in Georgia since March 19, 2013. Two small areas in south central and southwest Georgia were identified and are well correlated with the lowest departures from…
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The SE Cattle Advisor blog (https://www.secattleadvisor.com/)posted a wonderful essay on stockmanship this week. This essay was written by Dr. Lee Jones of the UGA School of Veterinary Medicine. You can read the full essay by clicking here. Here is the first paragraph to start you off: “Stockmanship, like sustainability, is a…
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Some farmers still rely on forecasts from the Farmers’ Almanac to provide climate information for planning purposes. The Washington Post this week pointed out that the Farmers’ Almanac got the forecast completely wrong this year in temperature, although it was closer in precipitation in Washington DC (but not in the…
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On July 31, the USDA Agricultural Research Service posted an article by Ann Perry summarizing a series of studies done by USDA scientists showing the strong links between cattle production and weather. For example, scientists found that in the period 1975-2012, two-thirds of the cow-calf production was due to seasonal…
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The tropics are starting to heat up, as we expect to happen in late August and on into September. This is the peak time for tropical storm development in the Atlantic. Right now there is a broad area of rotating low pressure in the Atlantic Ocean to the east of…
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