Tools for climate and agriculture
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This is the time of year that abnormally dry conditions can really start to affect agricultural production. This is true for both planting (seeds need moisture to germinate) and crop development. The Drought Monitor does not always do a good job of capturing the changing conditions as rapidly as we might like. In the past…
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The National Drought Mitigation Center now offers two ways to get monthly drought summaries. One is a Drought Summary that describes the current drought situation across the US by the weather and climate data that describe shortages of water, and the other is a more story-based summary that provides an Impact Summary of the drought…
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This is the time of year when dry spells can lead to flash droughts as plants come out of dormancy and start to really increase their water use. While I don’t see much chance of that for the Southeast anytime soon, it’s still a good practice to pay careful attention to the conditions that are…
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A new fire-mapping online tool is now available for the Southeast. It enables resource managers to improve their regional or local approaches to managing wildfire risk and fire management needs through targeted prescribed burns and training. Fire management helps improve forest ecosystem health, increases timber values, reduces the risk of wildfire damage to life and…
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If you live near a river or water body, you might wonder whether or not your property is in a flood plain. Here is a website which shows maps of flood risk for anywhere in Georgia. You can enter your address and it will create a map of your location with any flood plains that…
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Earlier this week, the USDA released a new soil moisture tool that is powered by NASA satellite data. The Crop Condition and Soil Moisture Analytics (Crop-CASMA) app provides access to high-resolution data from NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. It will help researchers, meteorologists and farmers…
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With the cold weather we have been having in the Southeast (although it is nothing compared to Texas and the central US), the number of chill hours that our fruit crops have received this year is quite a bit more than last year, although still below the long-term average amounts. That means that most varieties…