Climate and Ag in the news
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Today the hurricane forecasting group at Colorado State University released their first forecast of the 2021 Atlantic season. They are predicting another above-average year, with 17 named storms, 8 hurricanes, and 4 major hurricanes expected. This is based on the waning La Nina and the expected neutral conditions this summer along with other climatological factors…
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I love clouds, and so was very excited to see this in the news today. The Mars rover, Curiosity, has taken its first pictures of Martian clouds! They look a lot like cirrus clouds on earth, but it is not clear if they have the same chemical composition that earth clouds do. You can read…
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In recent years, climatologists have been hopeful that careful management of farm fields, including the use of cover crops, decreased tillage, and addition of manure, might allow carbon to be sequestered in the soil. This would be an advantage for farmers, who might be able to monetize the trapping of carbon as greenhouse gases in…
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The potential for wind and solar energy production varies a lot by state, depending on where they are. In the Southeast, we have a lot of potential for solar energy. although that is reduced by frequent cloud cover, but less potential for wind energy except near coastlines or along mountain ridges, because our average wind…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
Now that we are getting into the growing season and will be approaching tropical season before you know it, it is a good time to prepare your farm for extreme weather conditions (or any other kind of disaster) before they happen. The Wisconsin Agriculturalist published an article this past week on making plans for a…
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Now here’s something you don’t see every day. The American Geophysical Union has published an infographic comparing the size of raindrops on Earth to those expected on other planets (assuming they are warm enough to have rain instead of snow). The study factors in the force of gravity on each planet along with what we…
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Impacts from one bad weather event can often carry over into later growing seasons. For example, a flood can disturb the natural soil profiles and pull nutrients from the soil. Wind events like hurricanes can take multiple years to recover from, both in rebuilding infrastructure and in replanting crops and orchards. For example, corn from…