Climate and Ag in the news
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If you grow specialty crops in the Southeast, you may be interested in this pair of studies which look at the vulnerability of specialty crops in California and in the Midwestern US to changes in climate that are expected to occur over the next fifty years, including changes in the temperatures and growing seasons as…
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Puerto Rico experienced the destruction of not one but two tropical storms so far this season. First, Tropical Storm Irma gave a glancing blow to the territory as it traveled north of the island, providing winds and flooding rain to the area. Then came the direct and far more devastating blow from Hurricane Maria, which…
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Meteorologists and climatologists as well as folks living along the coast and agricultural producers across the Southeast have been watching the current Atlantic tropical storm season with interest, concern and even horror as the storms moved towards and then across the region, causing tremendous devastation. We are still learning about all of the impacts that…
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Outside magazine has an excellent article describing the causes of the forest fires which are currently covering wide swaths of the western United States. The biggest culprit is the continuing drought which has affected parts of the region this year. The wet winter may have also been a factor, since it allowed the regrowth of…
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If you’ve been reading this blog regularly, you know that we are in a La Niña watch for this winter. Signs of La Niña are already present in the eastern Pacific Ocean, but it generally takes a few months for an official declaration since they don’t want to jump the gun based on short-term variability. …
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Volcanologists and climatologists are watching the impending eruption of Mount Agung in Bali closely to see how soon it might erupt and how strong the eruption might be. Agung last erupted in 1963 and caused several years of below-normal weather following the strong eruption. The most recent large tropical volcanic explosion was Mount Pinatubo in the…
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The Washington Post published a story this week describing the loss of unripe citrus fruit from trees due to Hurricane Irma’s high winds (they suggest as much as 70% loss) and how it would affect orange juice sales in the future. The story noted that the production of oranges in Florida has decreased in recent…