Climate and Ag in the news
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Here’s an interesting story about freeze protection of apples in Italy. While I know that Southeastern farmers use irrigation to protect blueberries from freezing conditions, this is the first time that I have read about Italian farmers using the same method to protect their apples. The system they use is a little different in that…
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Another question that has come up a lot this week is how the heavy rain from last weekend affected the soil fertility in the areas that got the most rain. Here is an excellent article that describes some of the considerations you should use if your area experiences flooding rain on spring crops from the…
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Reports of damage from the storms of Saturday, April 24, are continuing to come in. In addition to the very heavy rain across the area, numerous reports of damaging hail and strong winds were reported in southern AL and GA and in northern FL, leading to crop damage and outright losses there. I have received…
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One of the projects that Dr. George Vellidis (UGA-Tifton) and I are working on over the next few years was featured this week in the NOAA Weather Program Office newsletter at https://wpo.noaa.gov/Resources/Newsletters. The Project Outcomes will: Assess the viability of low-cost soil moisture sensors via test-bed calibration (AL, GA), expand the egional soil moisture network…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
With the heavy rain this past weekend in southern Georgia along with large hail in some southwestern counties, Georgia farmers are reeling. I have seen a number of pictures showing fields washed out by the rain, causing damage that could take thousands of dollars to repair. I have also heard some reports of hail damage…
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The lack of much snow and rain this winter has set up the western US for another year of serious drought. Reservoirs are at very low levels, forcing water managers to make tough decisions about who gets water and who does not, since there is not enough to meet everyone’s needs. This article from the…
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I spend most of my time talking about climate and agriculture, but I want to take just a minute to toot my horn for the Atmospheric Sciences program at the University of Georgia. They are a rapidly growing program in the Department of Geography at UGA and have grown to almost 60 majors in just…