Climate and Ag in the news
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Much colder than normal minimum temperatures were felt across most of the Southeast on the morning of September 14. This map from the Southeast Regional Climate Center’s Perspectives tool shows the ranking of reporting stations across the area. Several stations reported their all-time lowest temperature for the date, including Macon GA, Charlotte NC, and Jacksonville…
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The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) posted a story today on the minimum extent of Arctic Sea ice this year. Records have been kept since 1981 (based on satellite measurements of ice cover) and show that now that fall is upon us, the ice is starting to expand as the North Pole gets…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
Vox.com had an interesting story online yesterday discussing the boom and bust of agriculture in Saudi Arabia due to their overuse of groundwater. According to the story, in the 1970s, the government allowed farmers to dig as many wells as they wanted to grow crops. Agriculture boomed, and Saudi Arabia for a while became the…
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Brad Haire reported in the Southeast Farm Press this week that farmers in the Southeast are being urged to harvest as soon as possible and to plant cover crops this winter to protect against the expected impacts from the strong El Niño this winter. Rains could be as much as 50 percent above normal, leading…
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Citrus farmers in California are building private reservoirs on their own land hoping to protect their orchards against the loss of water in future droughts when water is tightly controlled and water users are pitted against each other. The reservoirs, which are more like giant farm ponds than true reservoirs which rely on a dammed…
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Many farmers will be happy this week if they need dry weather to harvest. After the current band of rain moves south, most of the Southeast (with the exception of Florida) will have dry and cool conditions, although warmer conditions will return by the end of the week. Many areas will get less than 1/10…
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The Facebook feed for “This Day in Weather History” reminded me that in 1999, Hurricane Floyd was approaching the Southeast with winds of 145 mph. It did not hit the coast but veered north, paralleling the coast and causing massive evacuations and traffic problems. Some of the current policies in place for using interstate highways…