Vegetable and Specialty Crop News posted a story from UGA about the benefits of monitoring soil moisture by preventing overwatering by irrigation. Soil moisture sensors can be fairly inexpensive and can help prevent overirrigation, which can improve input costs. We also have soil moisture available at the UGA Weather Network…
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Changing climate is bringing more heat waves, droughts and flooding rains to the US. Farmers are on the front lines of dealing with this increasingly erratic weather and are trying to find new ways to adapt to the changing conditions by using their land management skills to their advantage to…
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While I have been away, I’ve read lots of interesting stories about weather and climate in the news. Here are a few I really liked, in no particular order. Forbes.com: Five social media posts about weather that need to go away in 2020 Yale Climate Connections: The case for growing…
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Scientific American recently posted an article describing a new study that shows an increase in highly amplified jet stream patterns which can lock into place for long periods. This can lead to simultaneous droughts and associated food shortages in different parts of the world, especially important grain-producing areas. If this…
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The Earth Institute at Columbia University posted a story this week which discussed a new study about how climate change is affecting the Corn Belt in the United States. There are two main effects: the first is that warming temperatures are increasing the rates of evaporation of soil moisture, leading…
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One of the most effective ways of producing crops year after year is to provide irrigation to make sure the plants have enough moisture to germinate, grow and yield good crops. Sometimes it only takes a few inches of rain a year, applied at the right time, to get your…
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Those of you who like history may be interested in this recent article describing the cause of one of Europe’s worst famines from 1315 to 1317. Unlike many famines, this one was probably not caused by drought but by unrelenting rain that caused severe flooding. You can read more about…
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