Climate and Ag in the news
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While it’s tough to make hay this year in drought-stricken parts of the Southeast, it is still interesting to read about how they make hay in other parts of the world. Here is a fascinating story about wild hay making in the Swiss high valleys from House of Switzerland: https://houseofswitzerland.org/swissstories/history/wild-hay-making-fascinating-swiss-tradition.
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NOAA has an interesting photo story about how their scientists have been measuring the impacts of Hurricane Matthew on the coasts of the Southeast. This is the first time that the hurricane storm surge modeling scientists have been able to directly observe how well their forecasts did compared to the actual storm surges measured. You…
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So many places in the Southeast are extremely hot and dry that meteorologists on The Weather Channel are calling it the “Desert Southeast” these days, according to today’s WunderBlog here. Birmingham AL is on day 50 of no rain with no end to the record-setting streak in sight. Many other stations have had little to…
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The Nature Conservancy has a new study about the value of planting trees in cities. The study looked at both the impacts on reducing temperature in urban areas but also reducing particulates through absorption by the trees. You can read a description of the work at The Atlantic CityLab at https://www.citylab.com/design/2016/10/the-big-green-payoff-from-bigger-urban-forests/505913/. You can read the…
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If you are a CoCoRaHS precipitation observer, thank you! Here is a message from the CoCoRaHS headquarters about your end of the water year summaries and how to get your Certificate of Appreciation. If you are not yet an observer, won’t you consider joining? I admit it’s a little frustrating to enter a “0” every…
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Some folks plant food plots to bring in deer for hunting or watching. With this year’s drought, planting is behind schedule. But Mark Mauldin from the Panhandle Ag e-News say that there is no point in planting these plots until some rain occurs. Otherwise the seeds won’t germinate and the plots will not survive, wasting…
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While I talk more about peanuts, cotton, corn and soybeans in this blog, there are many other crops in the Southeast that are affected by weather and climate. The Southeast Farm Press published a story this week about the problems that Virginia tobacco growers have had with the weather conditions this year. The problems began…