Climate and Ag in the news
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I saw a lot of tweets last night from Charleston SC about the impact of the current king tide on urban flooding in that city. Many streets were awash in sea water that was driven up by the higher than normal tides caused by the new moon. Here is a similar story about urban flooding…
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The Omaha World-Herald posted a story this week about how changes in climate, both in rising temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns, are changing agriculture in Nebraska and Iowa. While the amount of warming in the Southeast is not quite as large as in those states, most of the conclusions drawn in this story about…
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NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) noted this week that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a new publication on preparing for the health impacts of drought. It is a resource guide for public health professionals on what kinds of health issues can occur in dry conditions and how to…
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The latest round of ENSO forecasts now puts the chances of an El Niño occurring this winter at 70%, up from 64% last month. Generally once you get past spring, forecasts become more reliable and trustworthy, although they are certainly not perfect. The El Niño, if it occurs as expected, is likely to bring cooler, cloudier…
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NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center produces long-range forecasts for several time periods, including 6-10 days, 8-14 days, 3-4 weeks, and for one to three months at a time going out to as much as a year ahead. Most of these forecasts provide shading to indicate where the probabilities are tipped towards warmer or colder than normal…
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Irma hit the Florida peninsula almost ten months ago, causing heavy damage to many farms in the region. Producers are slowly recovering from the impacts of the winds and flood, but dairy farmers have been slow to benefit because of a clause in the recovery legislation which barred dairy farmers from recouping losses since milk…
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NASA’s new GRACE satellite can provide a snapshot look at soil moisture conditions across the entire US. The maps come out one a week at https://nasagrace.unl.edu/. This week’s map shows a streak of wet conditions stretching from Alabama north to Ohio, but dry conditions in southeast Georgia and north into most of South Carolina and central…