Climate and Ag in the news
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The end of fall is almost upon us and December is knocking at our door. Kirk Mellish of WSB in Atlanta posted his discussion of past Decembers and what the next one is likely to look like in his latest blog post. The updated December prediction from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center should come out tomorrow…
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Here is a reminder that drought is not all bad for farmers, from an article earlier this week in Growing Produce. While drought has many negative effects on crops, it also reduces a lot of diseases and also cuts down on the number of some pests that may be damaging the plants. Some farmers prefer…
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In my other blog this week at the Garden Professors, I wrote a post about the four types of drought that occur and how they can affect gardens and gardeners. You might be interested in reading it too. You can access it at https://gardenprofessors.com/how-dry-i-am-four-types-of-drought-and-how-they-can-affect-gardeners-and-gardens/.
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Do you ever wonder where the winter forecasts for the United States come from and how they determine what the likely conditions are going to be? The Europeans do similar forecasts for their own winter, and this long and detailed article from Severe Weather Europe provides a lot of information into how the forecasts are…
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Changes in the frequency of heavy rain and cold outbreaks have caused challenges for fruit growers in Michigan, where I grew up. Late cold outbreaks in spring have caused frost damage to some fruit like blueberries and peaches, and heavy rains have caused erosion and other issues for many orchards. There are some methods producers…
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How do you know how plants will respond to changes in climate? You try them out in different conditions to see how well they grow in a less than ideal climate and see whether or not they survive. Here is an interesting story from Atlas Obscura describing one testbed at the Wolfskill Experimental Orchards in…
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For those of you who are interested in the science of meteorology, here is a short explainer from Earth Networks that describes what causes wind and how it is measured. In brief, wind is just the flow of air caused by differences in air pressure that cause the air to move from areas of high…