Climate and Ag in the news
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With La Nina now firmly in place, producers are starting to think about what that means for crop and fruit production next year. We know that La Ninas tend to bring warmer and drier than normal weather to most of the Southeast, and this one is expected to be fairly strong, so all of the…
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A new research study published in Science shows that autumn leaves are falling earlier than in previous years, a surprise considering that warmer temperatures are moving the fall freezing temperatures later in the year. The scientists link this to quicker growth in the spring and maxing out the amount of carbon they can store. This…
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With all of the damage from hurricanes and tropical storms this year, extension agents and others are scrambling to keep on top of the post-storm studies of losses due to heavy rain and high winds. The latest storm, Eta, is no exception. The heavy rain from Eta hit southern Florida right when production of fresh…
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When you think about weather on other planets, you might think of the Big Spot on Jupiter or the high carbon dioxide heat of Venus. On Mars, we think about both dust storms and water. Here is an interesting story from EarthSky about some new evidence of megafloods after a meteor strike, which melted a…
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We are later than usual for the first frost of fall in a lot of the Southeast. That is going to change next week with a blast of cold air moving into the region. We could see temperatures dip below freezing for parts of the Southeast Monday night into Tuesday morning. High temperatures in Athens…
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The dry conditions we’ve been experiencing this fall have caused problems for those who need moisture in the soil to get winter grains and forage crops going before temperatures drop too far. But one group of producers is happy for the dry conditions: onion growers. They need drier conditions to get the onions in the…
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With the wet and humid conditions that we have seen this year, fungal diseases and problems like mycotoxins in grain have been a big issue. Climate models predict that wetter and more humid conditions are going to become more frequent in the future, and we are already seeing a trend in that direction, although 2020…