Climate science
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Carbon Brief recently published an interesting article that described how climate change will modify the area of land that is suitable for a variety of different crops, including many that are planted here in the Southeast. The authors provided a graph that shows how the areas suitable for tropical crops like banana may expand in…
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If you have been watching national weather news this week you may have noticed images of tremendous dust storms in western Texas, including El Paso. These dust storms caused visibilities near zero on highways, leading to accidents and health issues there. But you may not have seen the stories about the dirty rain that fell…
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The words “polar vortex” have been trotted out a lot this winter as waves of cold air and, sometimes, snow and ice have occurred. The polar vortex has been blamed for a lot of this activity. In fact, I saw a Facebook post from a retired Atlanta weather broadcaster that claimed we have had 11…
Posted in: Climate science -
I noticed when I was looking at the hourly weather forecast for Athens that the next two nights will both have freezes here in Athens, but the types of freezes will be quite different. You can see it quite well using the hourly graphical temperature forecast, so I thought I would discuss them using the…
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Meteorologists like to describe weather in terms of how hot, dry, wet, or cold things have been. A newer measure of the impacts of winter weather on humans is the Winter Misery Index, known more completely as the Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI). It is mapped by the Midwestern Regional Climate Center and posted on their…
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I’ve gotten some questions about how the snowstorm along the Gulf Coast this past week has compared to previous storms, especially the large snow event of 1895. This post in The Eyewall provides some great historical context and visuals from previous snowstorms and compares them to the event that just happened. Some parts of the…
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Rapid-onset drought, also known as “flash” drought, is something that plagues the Southeast periodically. It usually happens during the growing season where it can have a great impact on crops and pastures. Flash drought can be caused by a protracted dry spell at a time when crops need 1 to 1.5 inches of water a…