Sources of weather and climate data
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I recently ran across this USDA publication describing methods for adapting agriculture to increasing climate variability and climate change. While the publication is focused on the Midwest and Northeast, there are a lot of very good lessons for producers in the Southeast as well. I encourage you to take a look at it and see…
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As we get closer to the cold and snow that is expected in the next few days, you may be interested in viewing where the biggest impacts are occurring, especially if you are going to be traveling. NOAA has a good map depiction of where winter storm impacts are expected to occur over the next…
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There are many different networks of weather observations that are taken across the country and the world. Some of the networks are run by the National Weather Service, US Geological Survey, and other federal agencies. Now, there are also many networks run within the states by different agencies. The University of Georgia weather network that…
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Here is an interesting map display from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center that shows the daily distribution of lightning stokes across the United States. It is very interesting to see how the area of most lightning strikes moves around over the course of the year. You can view it at https://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/dataviewer/?mode=climo&category=ltg&product=ltgday.
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Today is the 25th anniversary of the infamous Fort Collins flash flood, which was the impetus for starting CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network). Fort Collins has a semi-arid climate, but rare tropical downpours lingered over the city during the beginning of the annual monsoon season, bringing nearly 15″ of rain in just…
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The USDM expanded its website capabilities in late June with the addition of county-level statistics on drought to their maps. When you go to their current map at https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap.aspx and click down through region to state map and then click on your county, you will see a table of drought statistics for that county farther…
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A few weeks ago, I wrote about how extension agents and agricultural producers in the Southeast can file reports on local conditions, including both droughts and floods. This hyper-local information is used by the weekly authors of the U. S. Drought Monitor to draw updated maps of drought conditions across the country. I took a…