Climate science
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Do you know what a “flash” drought is? I always thought it was a rapidly developing severe drought that primarily affected agriculture. I was surprised to learn that there are actually two types of flash drought, as explained by John Feldt, the retired Hydrologist in Charge of the NWS Southeast River Forecast Center. John now…
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Now that we are firmly stuck in the “hot and humid” mid-summer conditions of the Southeast, you might be interested in these fun facts on heat and humidity published by the Capital Weather Gang this week. You can find them by clicking here.
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I ran across a detailed journal article about the effects of climate variations on a whole list of specialty crops, some of which are grown in the Southeast and others of which are from other climate regions such as the tropics. In this Elementa Science review article, the authors looked at published studies on impacts…
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My colleague Dr. Brenda Ortiz from Auburn University recently had a paper published in Nature about climatic effects on maize yield in the Southeast that you might find interesting. You can read the article, entitled “Climate Change and ENSO Effects on Southeastern US Climate Patterns and Maize Yield”, at https://www.nature.com/articles/srep29777. Keep in mind that it is a…
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The Capital Weather Gang posted an article this morning discussing the torrid temperatures in the Middle East and how they are the hottest ever in the Eastern Hemisphere. Here is a link to their story. Alaska has also received a blast of hot temperatures in the last few weeks. Here is another Capital Weather Gang…
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The latest webinar from the CoCoRaHS network is now available and the Southeast is the star! You can listen to the archived presentation by Dr. Chip Konrad, the head of the Southeast Regional Climate Center, at https://www.cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=wxtalk50. In the webinar Chip discusses both the geographic patterns of climate across the region and trends in extreme weather…
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As a follow-up to the last posting on the heat dome in the central US, Bob Henson of Weather Underground posted this lengthy article about how a heat spell like the one that is coming can trigger the development of a “flash drought”, in this case most likely in the Corn Belt region, although it…