Climate and Ag in the news
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The smell of smoke outside my office today is very strong. It’s due to the wild fires associated with the drought that are occurring across many parts of the Southeast this week. Marshall Shepherd provides some information about the smoky conditions at Forbes.com here. EPA also has a good site which shows the track of…
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Today NOAA put out a La Niña Advisory for conditions in the eastern Pacific Ocean. This advisory replaces the La Niña Watch that has been active on and off for the last few months. This means that colder than normal water temperatures have been present along the equator in the eastern Pacific Ocean for long…
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Allison Floyd wrote an interesting story in Growing Georgia this week about research underway at the University of Georgia to find a more drought-resistant strain of sorghum, which already does well in dry conditions. She reports: “When University of Georgia plant geneticist Andrew Paterson started to look for lines of sorghum that might survive in…
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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…