Climate and Ag in the news
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While most farmers this year have been grateful for the transition to a rainier pattern after a dry June, it has caused some problems for farmers. Hot temperatures and saturated soils meant an early end to pollination and the early end of the squash and cucumber seasons. The wet soil also hindered harvest of some…
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I am speaking at a workshop this week in Atlanta that looks at drought prediction and impacts in the Southeast. One of the main topics of the workshop is flash drought, a drought that rapidly intensifies as rainfall drops to near zero in a prolonged dry spell and temperatures rise well above average. If you…
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Communicating the risks of extreme weather can be difficult even when you are speaking to native English speakers because of the specialized language and the amount of jargon that is often used. It becomes much more difficult when you are trying to get warnings to non-English speakers because many of the terms do not even…
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Earlier this week NOAA came out with their revised forecast for the number of tropical storms and hurricanes expected in the Atlantic Ocean this season. Even though it has been relatively quiet, that is expected to change in the next couple of week and NOAA is still expecting an above average number of named storms.…
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The heat wave that has been affecting Europe for the last few weeks has had very bad impacts on crops and farmers in the region. In addition to the heat, they have experienced extremely dry conditions there (of course, the two are related), with France experiencing its driest July on record. Here is a recent…
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When I lived in Wisconsin and the summer weather turned exceptionally hot and humid, we always blamed the cornfields in Iowa for the high humidity. In fact, we were right! The Corn Belt puts a lot of water into the air as all those corn plants transpire water into the atmosphere. In fact, if you…
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The Specialty Crop Industry newsletter posted a story this week by Clint Thompson describing some of the negative effects of the recent heat wave on vegetable crops in Alabama (and by extension, most of the rest of the Southeast as well). Sunscald was seen on some watermelons, and the high temperatures sped up the tomato…