Climate and Ag in the news
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How has winter precipitation changed over time in the Southeast? If you look at trends from 1970 to 2012, there has been a decrease in December through February precipitation in most climate divisions in our region. Climate Central produced a map which shows the biggest declines have been in Georgia and the Carolinas. Precipitation has…
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That was the headline this morning on a Yahoo News story about the California drought. A new study coming out in the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate indicates that the possibility of a decade-long drought in the Southwest could be as high as 90 percent, and there is even a 50 percent probability of…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
Volcanologists and climatologists are watching the current eruption of Mount Tavurvur in Papua New Guinea closely to see how long and intense the current eruption lasts. The volcano erupted so strongly on Friday that Qantas airline had to reroute flights between Sydney and Tokyo as well as Sydney and Shanghai to avoid the clouds of…
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The UN General Assembly recently decided to designate 2015 as the International Year of Soils to recognize the importance of soils for food security as well as ecosystem functions. Agricultural producers recognize the importance of good soil management to maintaining their farms’ economic viability and health. You can read more about the UN declaration here.…
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If you work outdoors in summer, you know that air quality can be a concern. High ozone levels near the surface (as opposed to the upper-level ozone which protects us from ultraviolet rays) are caused by interactions of sunlight and air pollution, particularly from emissions from automobiles but also to some extent from agriculture and…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
If you’ve been following this blog, you have no doubt noticed that drought is the number one subject that comes up in blog postings. It is no wonder: farmers are more interested in drought than in any other topic of weather and climate, because it is so detrimental to their bottom line. And recent dry…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
The blog from the State Climate Office of North Carolina posted a new story today about some summer research done on the relationship between total net primary productivity (TNPP) of pines and drought indices. The research explored statistical correlations between various drought indices like the Palmer Drought Severity Index and the Standardized Precipitation Index and…