Climate and Ag in the news
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Vegetable and Specialty Crop News posted a story earlier this week describing problems that Georgia peach farmers are having with the unusually low number of chill hours that have been observed this year due to the warm winter and spring. For the peaches that survived the mid-March frost, the lack of chill hours has led…
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This isn’t really about the weather, but is very cool nonetheless. EarthSky has a fascinating video of flocking starlings moving together in movements of incredible grace that appear hypnotic. The movements are called a “murmuration.” The birds seem to anticipate each others’ movements, leading to waves of movement through the flock. But how do they…
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It’s no surprise that we are seeing a lot of activity in the severe weather department this week. Historically, this has been a very active time of year across the US, and it’s the main peak of severe weather activity in the Southeast, although we have a secondary peak in fall and tornadoes can and…
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The Packer noted today that Vidalia onion farmers are optimistic about this year’s harvest. The mild winter created good conditions for the onions, and they largely missed the impacts of the mid-month frost. The result is expected to be a generous harvest of onions, many on the large size even with an earlier than usual…
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The record of the blossoming date of cherry trees in Kyoto, Japan, is one of the longest phenological records climatologists have. Historical information on the blossom date goes back all the way to 812 AD, although nearly continuous records are not available until 1406 AD. The dates have recently been compiled into a single record,…
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Today there is a large tornado outbreak underway in Louisiana, and the system is moving east and will affect our area on Monday. The screen capture of today’s radar below shows not only a strong line of severe storms moving through Louisiana today but multiple individual supercell thunderstorms ahead of the line. Many of these…
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The Vegetable and Specialty Crop News published an article this week on the impact of weather on Florida peaches. Research is showing that peach leaf rust is a big issue for Florida peaches. According to the article, “Due to Florida’s hot, humid and rainy summers, peaches are much more susceptible to the rust. The disease can…