Drought
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The latest Drought Monitor, released this morning, shows that while dry conditions have remained stable in Florida and Georgia, they have expanded in North Carolina and Virginia, going from 19% coverage over the Southeast to almost 35% coverage. The cause has been the dome of high pressure parked over the Southeast, which prevents rain from…
Posted in: Drought -
“Restorative grazing” is the idea that by appropriate use of grazing on dry grasslands, you can build up organic matter and improve the land to increase the health of the plants there, even during droughts. In this article from the Food and Environment Reporting Network, a 7-year study of a desertified landscape in Zimbabwe looked…
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Continuing our look at droughts around the globe, NASA posted a story last month about the drought in the eastern Mediterranean based on some recent research that was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. The research showed that based on climate data and tree ring analysis from the region, which includes Israel, Syria,…
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A number of news stories in recent weeks have shown the influence of the waning strong El Niño on climate around the world. Here is a sampling of stories on the agricultural impacts of droughts in some of these areas. News24 reported that drought in Zimbabwe has caused the deaths of at least 19,300 head…
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The latest Drought Monitor, released this morning, shows that the area of abnormally dry conditions has shifted due to this week’s rains. D0 conditions were reduced in Georgia and northeast Florida but expanded in North and South Carolina. The first image below shows the latest map, and the second image shows last week’s map. The…
Posted in: Drought -
Yale Climate Connections posted a story this week about the tough decisions that Southern California farmers are having to make after another winter with low rainfalls. One farmer says that she had to cut 100 acres of vegetables last year (out of 350 total) and another 100 this year due to lack of water. She…
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El Niño has been the dominating atmospheric pattern driving the weather and climate in the Southeast for the past few months. Normally, El Niño brings wetter conditions to the region, with cooler conditions caused by the persistent cloudiness. This year has not been a perfect example, since although some areas of the Southeast saw well-above…