I am on the road for Christmas and expect to see 10-15 inches of new snow later this week. Hard to get a blizzard in the Southeast! I will be taking a break from the blog until January 1 to spend time with family and friends. Thank you for your…
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The latest monthly climate summary from NOAA shows that the average temperature for the US was 0.7 F below average and the precipitation was 0.17 inches above average. This puts the country in the middle third of years for both variables. The Southeast was generally warmer and wetter than the…
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Over the course of the last day, Tropical Depression 9 formed in the Atlantic Ocean north of South America and Tropical Depression 10 formed off the west coast of Africa. TD10 subsequently became Tropical Storm Hermine over the course of the day. It poses no threat to us in the…
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The latest Drought Monitor, released today, shows only slight changes in most of the region from last week’s map. The biggest change was in Alabama, where recent rains have eliminated the small area of drought and substantially reduced the area of abnormally dry (D0) conditions. Other states had small changes…
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The Garden Professors blog has two interesting and related posts describing how cold-hardy plants can survive temperatures well below freezing. If you are a gardener or farmer, you might be interested in reading about this. The two posts are listed below: Part 1: The mechanics of how plants survive cold…
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Here is a look at 20 historical droughts in the United States going back several centuries. The list is more focused on the western part of the country, but that is where the longest and most intense droughts were over long time periods. You might be interested in seeing some…
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The last few years have brought many tropical storms and hurricanes to the Southeast. This week marks the 5-year anniversary of Hurricane Matthew, which dropped heavy rains on the East Coast, especially eastern North and South Carolina. The damage to agriculture, infrastructure, and housing from the wind and rain was…
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