Climate and Ag in the news
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This is the famous quote that opens Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities”. In this case it is also a pretty good summary of the divided nature of temperature across the US this winter. The Weather Channel had a story today which described stations that had their record warmest winter ever, including a number…
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In spite of what your calendar says, for climatologists spring begins on March 1. If you are interested in why we use March 1 instead of the astronomical date, which this year is March 20, you can read about it in this blog post from the Illinois State Climatologist, Jim Angel, at https://climateillinois.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/will-spring-ever-get-here-yes-it-will/ Besides, I…
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The Packer published an article yesterday describing the damage to early blueberries caused by the cold temperatures on February 17-20. Temperatures fell into the low 20s overnight and caused damage that may amount to 10-30 percent of the early blueberry crop. Farmers that ran frost protection lost 10-15 percent of their crops while farmers that…
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The big joke in Washington DC yesterday was Senator Inhofe throwing a snowball in Congress, proving once and for all that climate change does not exist. Or not. After all, as some scientists have said, “just because I have a sandwich does not mean that there is no world hunger.” Climatologists hear this false argument…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
If you like to get regular briefings on current weather and climate conditions, you should consider subscribing to the National Weather Service Southeast River Forecast Center’s YouTube channel. On that site they give informative video updates on current water conditions around the Southeast, usually once every few weeks. It would be especially helpful to those…
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A recent study by researchers at Kansas State University looked at wheat yields in areas across the world to see how temperatures affected the yields of the popular crop. For the study, researchers systematically tested 30 wheat crop models against field experiments from around the world that were conducted in areas where the average temperature…
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Weather observations are the backbone of understanding the climate system. The earliest modern weather observations in the United States were taken by surgeons in the forts scattered around the country. Later in the 1800’s, volunteer observers worked for the Smithsonian to collect weather measurements. Now, there are many different types of weather and climate observations…