Climate and Ag in the news
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Today marks the 18th birthday of the Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow network, more frequently known as CoCoRaHS. Nolan Doesken, the founder of the network, has some interesting information on how the network got started in his most recent newsletter, which you can read here. I have been a CoCoRaHS observer in Clarke County,…
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Even though it has been hot and mostly dry in the Southeast, in France and Spain soggy weather has caused problems for farmers as well as contributing to the floods that have plagued Paris in recent weeks. AgWeb posted an article this week saying that wheat harvesting is 8-10 days behind normal due to the…
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According to the Weather Channel, ongoing drought conditions have contributed to the 29 million tree deaths in California, a number that is still on the rise. In addition to millions of oak trees in the state being killed off by sudden oak death disease, bark beetles have also played a large role in taking out…
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For farmers in India, the rains from the monsoon can make or break their crops for the year. This seasonal onset of the rainy season varies from one place to another and is linked to land-ocean temperature differences between the Indian Ocean and the Indian subcontinent. It is also intimately linked to the El Niño…
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The latest Drought Monitor shows an significant expansion of severe drought in both Alabama and Georgia. Dry conditions early in June and a miss by Tropical Storm Colin coupled with very warm temperatures has allowed severe drought to grow, expanding south from the northern portions of those states into the Birmingham and Atlanta areas. Hot…
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In a warmer climate with a longer growing season, climatologists have generally considered that the longer frost-free season will lead to an increase in insect pests that affect both crops and livestock. I was interested to see an article posted today in Phys.org describing the impacts that a warming climate may have on insect pests,…
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A new website which collects information on wildfire in the Southeast is now available at https://southernwildfire.net/. This website collects information on wildfire research geared towards Southeastern wildfires as well as shares success stories on dealing with forest fires. It includes information on SouthWRAP, the Southern Wildfire Risk Assessment online mapping tool, an evaluation tool for assessing your…