Climate and Ag in the news
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You may be wondering why this year’s hurricane season so far has been so quiet. I think that an unfavorable atmosphere dominated by a lot of dust off of Africa has tamped things down so far, although that may be ending. Here is a good description of other quiet hurricane seasons from Weather.com. Even though…
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While it has not been too hot here in the Southeast, that is not true in other parts of the world. For example, the extreme heat in California and surrounding states has caused significant damage to crops such as lettuce, browning the edges and making them unsellable because of cosmetic damage or just killing them…
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All the wet conditions in the Southeast have brought another hindrance to our farmers–the lack of sunshine associated with high humidity and cloud cover as we get round after round of rain. The lack of sunshine is causing problems for farmers that need the sun’s energy to finish off crops like corn and pecans. Here…
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This has been a very dry and hot year in many parts of the world. Europe just experienced its hottest summer ever. Drought has been a big problem in many areas, although not too much in the Southeast for us. EarthSky put a summary of drought conditions around the world together in late August with…
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A recent story in Physics Today described some new research from the University of Ottawa, which found the earlier arrival of spring in parts of North America negatively impacts bumblebee survival. This could potentially threaten bee-pollinated agricultural crops and other plant sources since if the bumblebees emerge before their food source blooms, they might not…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
Here’s an interesting long-form story from CNN for those of you who, like me, are fascinated by the work that hurricane hunters do to monitor developing storms and collect information that can be used to predict future storm path and development. In this case, the hurricane hunters are taking measurements near the Cape Verde Islands…
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The extreme heat out west is causing a lot of problems for residents of the Southwest as water availability continues to be a concern for some farmers and city dwellers. Earlier this week, a new record for the world’s hottest temperature in September was potentially set in Death Valley at the Furnace Creek site, with…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news