Drought
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The US Department of Agriculture has just released a new report on the impacts of drought on forests and rangelands. It includes descriptions of the types of drought, impacts on water supplies and vegetation, and includes information on how to deal with the impacts effectively. You can find it at https://www.fs.fed.us/sites/default/files/DROUGHT_book-web-1-11-16.pdf.
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This coming week rain is expected over the Southeast, with the lowest amounts in Florida and the highest amounts stretching from the eastern Gulf of Mexico up the East Coast. This track will bring significant rain to southeastern Georgia, where abnormally dry conditions have lingered over the past few months as they have missed a…
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El Niño has been strongly affecting the climate of the Southeast for the past few months, leading to our current wet conditions. While temperatures in December were much warmer than expected for an El Niño winter, since then the Southeast has cooled down to more normal values. Cloudiness this year has also been an issue…
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EarthSky reported recently that 2015 was the worst year on record for wildfires in the United States, based on area covered. Estimates by the National Interagency Fire Center were that more than 10 million acres burned. Many of those were in the western US, which has been plagued by severe drought and high temperatures this…
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A study recently published in Nature magazine shows that in the time period from 1964 to 2007, global crop yields were reduced by up to 10 percent from drought and extreme heat. Floods and extreme cold did not appear to have a similar effect. A surprising result from the study was that crop yields in developed…
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ABC News posted a story today about the severe drought in South Africa. In the last week 11 people have died from heatstroke associated with record-setting high temperatures in the dry conditions. One farmer reported that he has already lost $60,000 this season because he has not been able to plant a single seed. He…
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A recent study of Australian wheat and sheep farmers after years of increasing drought and dust storms shows that the farmers are suffering from depression, according to a recent story in Modern Farmer. “The biggest problem seems to be the uncertainty. Farmers don’t know whether their crops will survive or be hit by a sudden…