Drought
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After several years of drought, Californians were looking forward to a wet El Niño season to refill their reservoirs and recharge their water systems. But while northern California has seen much more rain than in the last few years, southern California is still suffering from a major lack of water, and drought conditions as well…
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The WaterDeeply web site has a new article describing the ravages that multiple years of drought are taking on forests and trees in California. According to the article 120 million trees there are at risk of dying due to the severe drought. This is a huge concern because of its potential for making wildfires in…
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BBC News published a news story this weekend discussing the likely changes we are likely to see in US agriculture if warming trends continue. The story was based on a recently published study of how extreme events like the Dust Bowl of the 1930s would affect agriculture if it happened in a warmer climate in…
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While for many farmers, drought causes severe economic hardship, a new study of California farmers shows that some of them are doing very well economically in spite of over four years of drought, according to an article in AgWeb yesterday. Some of the profits come from the surging value of crops like almonds, while others…
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NASA’s Earth Observatory blog posted an interesting story yesterday about the impacts of South Africa’s current severe drought on maize farmers. Drought is often seen in this region when a strong El Niño occurs, so it was not unexpected, but is more severe than usual. Due to the dry conditions, farmers have not been able…
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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…