Climate and Ag in the news
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Tropical Storm Elsa formed early this morning over the Atlantic Ocean. It is the earliest “E” storm on record in the Atlantic Basin. It is also unusual in that it formed from an African easterly wave, way ahead of when that part of the basin usually gets active. In fact, according to Brian McNoldy’s blog…
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The extremely high temperatures out west in recent days have had a number of consequences. One you might not have thought of is the impact on air travel. Airplanes have trouble taking off if the air is too hot because the density is reduced, affecting the lift. For more about this and other heat-related impacts…
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The extreme heat in the Pacific Northwest is setting all kinds of records for high temperatures, including some all-time highs for individual cities and potentially even for the entire country of Canada. It has also caused huge infrastructure problems with buckling highways and other effects of the high heat. I have heard of at least…
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The Great Flood of 2019 wiped out millions of acres of farmland in Iowa and Missouri along the Missouri River, leaving many farmers literally underwater. They hoped for help from FEMA to repair the washed-out levees and clean up their fields. However, relief has been slow to come, and in many cases the farmers had…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
The temperature at the Seattle-Tacoma airport hit 100 F today. Tomorrow and Monday are supposed to be even hotter. The heat wave out west has the potential to break all-time record high temperatures at many places in the northwestern US. Understandably, farmers are worried about the consequences of the heat on their crops. Cherries in…
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A new study by researchers at Kansas State and North Carolina State Universities shows that warmer nighttime temperatures cause problems in rice and (potentially) wheat, altering their circadian rhythm behavior. This is a concern for farmers because temperatures overnight are warming twice as fast as daytime high temperatures. Warm overnights are linked to higher humidity…
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I have way too many tabs open on my Windows computer. Here are some of the collected stories of interest that I have seen over the past few weeks. This batch is mostly stories on national or international climate and agriculture. I will publish a second list tomorrow for more local stories from the Southeast.…