Drought
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AgWeb posted an interesting story this week about the increase in the use of drought-tolerant hybrids of corn in recent years. The first seeds with drought tolerance were made available in 2011 and the percent of corn acreage planted with the new hybrids has grown to over 20% since then. I expect to see this…
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As expected, the drought in Florida improved significantly this week after a lot of rain fell over the past few days. All of the severe (D2) drought was eliminated and most of the moderate drought was also removed. Not much rain will fall in the driest areas in the next week, so conditions should stabilize…
Posted in: Drought -
The latest Drought Monitor, released today, shows no change from last week in the drought coverage across the Southeast. Remember that the only state in our region that is currently experiencing drought is Florida. Rainfall in the next week is concentrated on southern Florida so we may see some improvement in drought on next week’s…
Posted in: Drought -
With the continued lack of rainfall in the Florida peninsula, an area of severe (D2) drought has been added to the Drought Monitor map this week. The severe drought stretches along the east coast northeast of Lake Okeechobee. Rainfall in the next week will probably keep things unchanged in next week’s map. No drought elsewhere…
Posted in: Drought -
The latest Drought Monitor map, released earlier this week, shows that moderate (D1) drought is continuing to expand in southern Florida and now covers most of the southern half of the peninsula. With little rain in the forecast for the next week, that expansion could continue, causing some problems for farmers in that area. Elsewhere,…
Posted in: Drought -
A recent scientific study presented at the latest meeting of the American Geophysical Union suggests that the American Southwest may be in the beginning of a mega-drought, which is an extended period of abnormally dry conditions. A number of mega-droughts have been identified in the desert Southwest using tree rings and other paleo-climate indicators, with…
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Every Thursday I post an image of the latest Drought Monitor map. Fortunately for us in the Southeast, there is not a lot of drought to talk about now other than in southern Florida. But how does this map get made and what are the politics of making these images? National Public Radio offered a…