Climate and Ag in the news
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To understand how common crops respond to changes in climate, some researchers at the University of Minnesota have built a sophisticated climate-controlled laboratory for studying how crops like corn respond to changes in temperature, carbon dioxide concentration, and rainfall. I was amazed at how carefully they had to put together the lab, for example in…
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Today marks the 40th anniversary of the devastating flash flood that hit the Big Thompson canyon in Colorado, killing 144 people and causing tremendous damage to the area on that Saturday evening in 1976. The flood was not well predicted due to the high elevation, which reduced radar visibility of the storm that funneled all…
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One of the comments I often hear when giving talks about changes in climate is that a change in annual average temperature is not very useful for most farmers, since temperature varies on a wide variety of scales and they can adapt to a fairly wide range of climate conditions. A recent article published in…
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Growing Georgia reprinted a story by Merritt Melancon of UGA on the recent string of very hot days here in Athens and other parts of Georgia yesterday. You can read it here. Another story about the hot weather appeared this morning in OnlineAthens.com here. Both of them use information I provided from a number of…
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If you’re tired of hot summer weather, you might enjoy a chance to think about cool winters. North Georgia Weather published a blog article on the relationship between ENSO phase and the likelihood of getting a cold winter in the Southeast back in September 2015. You can read it at https://www.northgeorgiawx.com/weather-blog/category/el-nino. The statistics show that about…
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USDA’s Southern Region Station posted an article recently describing changes that are likely to occur in water yield and forest productivity in a warmer climate. You can read it at https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/compass/2016/07/26/watersheds-of-the-future-could-mirror-a-variable-climate/. While large changes in water yield from forests are expected in parts of the US, especially in the West, the Southeast shows relatively small changes…
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In view of the heat that is blanketing much of the US this week, Modern Farmer published a list of five methods that you can use to keep animals cool. And don’t forget, if they have light skin and little hair, they can get sunburned too. You can read the story here.