Climate and Ag in the news
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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…
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As expected, the latest Drought Monitor has expanded the area of severe drought in Georgia under the dry conditions we have had for the last week. The coverage of D2 drought expanded from 3% to over 8% and now covers a significant portion of southwest and south central Georgia. The latest map and statistics are…
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There have been a number of stories this week on climate impacts on agriculture. The earthquake in Napa Valley also had impacts on the current wine year, although fortunately the timing reduced the potential cost of this disaster. Here are a few of the stories: Guatemala’s government declared an emergency due to one of the…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the national release of “The Wizard of Oz,” one of the most first movies to depict tornadoes and still one of the best, in my opinion. Not bad for a moving tube of fabric! The tornado looks just as realistic as many created by CGI in more recent tornado…
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Nature published an article in June showing that using no-till agriculture cooled fields in Europe by up to two degrees C on the hottest days of summer. The cooling was caused by increased reflection off of the fields from the cover, which reflected more sunlight than the bare dark earth and kept the energy balance…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
A couple of articles this week discussed breeding tomatoes and sweet peas to take advantage of different weather and climate conditions while also improving marketability. Food Arts magazine described recent work by Calvin Lamborn, the first man to produce the commercial sugar snap pea in 1979. He is now working to produce new breeds with…