Climate and Ag in the news
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The combination of warmer than usual weather, lack of precipitation and the early emergence of plants from winter dormancy has helped lead to near-record low stream flows for this time of year on many rivers in Georgia. Here are a couple of examples. The Chattahoochee near Cornelia is at record low flows for this time…
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Estimates of damage from last week’s killing frost continue to come in. Here are a few more stories about impacts of the frost on crops in the Southeast, particularly Georgia blueberries and South Carolina peaches. But other crops have felt some impacts as well, while others largely escaped significant damage. The Packer: Georgia blueberries bear…
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This week in the aftermath of the Northeast blizzard and accusations of a bad forecast there, Dr. Marshall Shepherd of UGA discusses perceptions of good and bad forecasts in his latest blog post at Forbes.com. In some cases, the forecast is quite good but the timing or the placement of the biggest impacts occurs at…
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Bob Kemerait of UGA had a really insightful piece published in the Southeast Farm Press this week on the importance of Extension agents after a devastating event like the freeze that killed most of the blueberries in Georgia last week along with some strawberries, peaches and apples. He points out that “It is a bitter…
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Growing Georgia published a note from University of Georgia scientists this morning asking for help from the public in doing research on dogwoods. You can read it here. You can help by downloading an app to your smartphone which will help you and the scientists document the blooming times for dogwood around the Southeast. Citizen…
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While many farmers are still assessing just how bad the freeze last week was on their fruit crops, WunderBlog has produced some updated information that does not paint a good picture of the impacts on this year’s harvest. According to their report, “At least 90 percent of the peach crop in South Carolina (the nation’s…
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One of the signs that an El Niño may be brewing in the eastern Pacific Ocean is a burst of unusually warm water near the coast that is contributing to heavy flooding in Peru. According to Yahoo News, at least 62 people have died and more than 70,000 have become homeless as Peru’s rainy season…