Climate and Ag in the news
-
Salty soil can be caused by a number of problems, including drought and a lack of rainfall to flush salts out of the soil, salt water intrusion and rising sea levels near the coast, and irrigation from salty aquifers. Over time, the salts build up and make it difficult to grow many types of crops. …
-
The journal Science published an article today which shows an updated historical climatology of global temperatures produced by NOAA. The newly revised temperature timeline shows that unlike previous analyses, the new timeline shows that there has been no substantial slow-down in the rate of temperature increase on the globe. The previous theory about the “hiatus”…
-
William Shatner of StarTrek fame has proposed moving water through new massive pipelines from the Pacific Northwest down to California to support the agriculture industry there. He even started a Kickstarter campaign to raise the money to build those pipelines. But Cliff Mass, an atmospheric scientist from the University of Washington, has a different idea:…
-
The Florida Climate Institute has a page of FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) available on the topics of climate variability and climate change in Florida and the Southeast. While some of the answers are specific to Florida, many of them are applicable across the Southeast. You can find them at https://floridaclimateinstitute.org/resources/faqs#faqnoanchor. They also released a press statement…
-
Yahoo News had a couple of stories yesterday highlighting more problems with the continuing drought on the West Coast and impacts on agriculture. One story noted that California’s snowpack is already gone for the year, which means no more water coming down the rivers for irrigation until the next rainy season begins. Governor Brown has…
-
Today is June 1, and that means the official start to the Atlantic hurricane season. Of course, this year we’ve already been visited by Tropical Storm Ana, which brought rain to the eastern Carolinas and some high surf along the coast. Quite a few other seasons had a storm before the “official” start date, so…
-
The Washington Post wrote earlier this week about the extremes in weather that have occurred around the globe in May. Scientists attribute the extremes at least in part to an unusually stationary jet stream which has locked in place, bringing torrential rain to Texas and Oklahoma and leaving other areas dry, including much of the…