Tools for climate and agriculture
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Even though the El Niño is still growing towards a new record, climatologists and farmers are starting to look ahead to what the end of El Niño means for production next year. The El Niño is expected to wane starting in spring. In some years it moves to the opposite pattern, called La Niña, and…
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Here in Athens GA, it has rained every day so far this November. It is raining now as I write this. That makes seven days in a row with measurable rainfall. My mushrooms are doing great! I’ve been asked more than once how unusual this is. To answer this question, the easiest source of information…
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I got a phone call today from a peach producer here in Georgia who was wondering why the chill hours this year are so low compared to previous years. For example, near my office in Watkinsville GA we have only received 28 chill hours from October 1 through yesterday compared to 79 in 2014, 62…
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In my series on sources of climate data I mentioned the regional climate centers as a great source of information both for specific regions and for national perspectives. The Midwestern Regional Climate Center has a couple of new products that you might be interested in. One feature that has many national aspects is their new…
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The USGS has a nice tool for calculating the total amount of rain that fell in a storm. You can find it at their Water School site at https://water.usgs.gov/edu/activity-howmuchrain.html. Based on this tool, it has been estimated that the amount of rain that fell in the South Carolina flood was 11 trillion gallons of water, according…
Posted in: Tools for climate and agriculture -
Much colder than normal minimum temperatures were felt across most of the Southeast on the morning of September 14. This map from the Southeast Regional Climate Center’s Perspectives tool shows the ranking of reporting stations across the area. Several stations reported their all-time lowest temperature for the date, including Macon GA, Charlotte NC, and Jacksonville…
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A number of people have remarked to me here in Athens that this summer has been very nice. Temperatures have not been too hot and we have had some rain, although there have also been dry spells. The thermograph for Athens shows the daily variation in temperature below. Note that yesterday, August 12, was almost…