Sources of weather and climate data
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Do you ever get asked about where to get information on 50-year droughts? I got one this week from a fire chief who was looking to certify dry hydrants and needed to know what a 50-year drought looks like. While specific impacts of any drought on a pond or lake vary depending on drainage into…
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Do you know what to do if you are caught in a flood? The National Weather Service says “Turn around, don’t drown.” Great advice, but sometimes you need more than that. They also provide a web page with more resources for emergency managers and citizens. You can view it at https://www.floodsafety.noaa.gov/index.shtml. Be smart and stay safe!…
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Rome Ethredge reported in his blog today that they are starting to think about planting corn in southwest Georgia in areas where the soil is not too wet. Generally corn can be planted when the 2 inch soil temperature is consistently at 55 F or higher with no cold spell expected. Soil temperatures of 60…
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You might not consider winter a time to get a heat wave, but one accepted definition of a heat wave is three or more consecutive days with temperatures at least five degrees above average. So media reports of a “heat wave” in Calgary are correct, even if the temperatures seem low to us in the Southeast. According…
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Snowfall is beautiful but can cause a lot of problems for those who need to go places. It can also cause damage to trees and even buildings if there is enough of it. Deke Arndt of the National Centers for Environmental Information has a great blog post this week in “Beyond the Data” on the…
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The Storm Prediction Center has a new web resource for those who want to look at past tornado events. You can find it at https://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/outbreaks/. This is a map-based tool that allows you to look at individual past tornado outbreaks and see the ingredients that went into them. I used this to find the tornado outbreak…
Posted in: Sources of weather and climate data -
One of Georgia’s longest weather observers, Willis Swint of Jonesboro, was profiled in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article this weekend here. He recently received the Thomas Jefferson Award from the National Weather Service for over 50 years of daily weather measurements. We are grateful for the six decades of service that Mr. Swint has provided to…