Drought
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After the tremendous flooding earlier this week, it probably does not come as a surprise to you that the Drought Monitor today has removed all categories of drought from most of the Carolinas and Virginia. It is rare for them to change by more than one category in a week, but the large area of…
Posted in: Drought -
The journal Nature posted a new article this week on the long-term consequences of drought on California agriculture and why things may have to change in the future in spite of short-term relief from El Niño. You can read the article at https://www.nature.com/news/california-agriculture-weathers-drought-at-a-cost-1.18457.
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The Southeast Farm Press reported earlier this week about the devastating impacts of the flash drought that is affecting South Carolina as well as parts of North Carolina and Georgia. Ironically, wet conditions last spring delayed planting of many crops and probably reduced the number of acres of corn planted. Then hot and dry conditions…
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The latest Drought Monitor this morning shows decreasing drought in Georgia and Florida but increases in drought and abnormally dry conditions in Alabama and North and South Carolina. You can visit the Drought Monitor at https://www.droughtmonitor.unl.edu/. Predictions for rainfall are below average for the next few weeks so this is likely to expand over time,…
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AgWeb published a story today on the adverse impacts of the forest fires that are raging across the Western US on cattle and ranchers. Much of the land that has burned is leased for grazing, and some ranchers have had significant losses of cattle and hay as well as destruction of barns and equipment. …
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Vox.com had an interesting story online yesterday discussing the boom and bust of agriculture in Saudi Arabia due to their overuse of groundwater. According to the story, in the 1970s, the government allowed farmers to dig as many wells as they wanted to grow crops. Agriculture boomed, and Saudi Arabia for a while became the…
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The latest Drought Monitor was released today and shows that severe drought (D2) expanded slightly in the Southeast as a whole in the past week. Most of the expansion was in the Carolinas and Georgia; extreme drought was eliminated and conditions improved to “severe drought” in southern Florida due to the rain from the remains of Tropical…