Climate and Ag in the news
-
With the dry conditions out west and the rainy season nearly finished, water managers out there are worried about how to provide water for the thirsty citizens and crops that live and grow there in the dry land. In past years, the snowpack that accumulated over the winter provided irrigation water as they slowly melted…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
If you are interested in keeping track of precipitation at your home or business, you might be interested in joining the Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow Network, also known as CoCoRaHS. This network of citizen scientists takes daily measurements of precipitation using a standard 4-inch diameter rain gauge and reporting it online every day.…
-
A recent study by scientists at North Carolina State University showed that recent flood maps produced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) do not do a good job of capturing flood risk based on their study of flood damage across the United States. The study showed that many areas with extensive flood damage occurred…
-
The latest monthly and seasonal climate summary for the United States was released today by NOAA. The maps show that February was quite a bit warmer than normal across the Southeast with dry conditions across most of the region. For the winter, we saw a very typical La Nina pattern, with drier than normal conditions…
-
The recently released report on rising sea levels provides ample cause for concern along the Gulf coast. It’s not just rising sea levels that are causing problems, though. It is also heavier rains from hurricanes, toxic red tides caused in part by drainage of agricultural chemicals off of lands far upstream of the Mississippi delta,…
-
The Weather Channel had an interesting story this weekend about two wildfires that burned in the Florida Panhandle last week. The fires were attributed to dry, windy conditions combined with abundant fuel that was composed of downed trees and debris left over from Hurricane Michael in 2018. You may recall that Michael made landfall near…
-
March came in so quietly this year that I forgot to remind you all that March 1 is the start of meteorological and climatological spring. Atmospheric scientists use the period from March 1 through May 31 to represent spring rather than the astronomical season because it matches up better with the climate on earth than…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news