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…
Read More
This week marks the start of astronomical fall (remember, climatological fall started September 1). A strong cold front is expected to move through our region midweek, marking the end of summer and the beginning of the fall season. Rainy conditions early in the week (not continuous, but showery before the…
Read More
While we here in the Southeast have been the beneficiaries of the current atmospheric wave pattern and its cooler temperatures, our friends in the western US have had the bad end of the stick. Not only are they seeing an extended and extreme drought, but they have also been experiencing…
Read More
There have been a lot of stories about heat and drought across the world over the last couple of weeks. Here are some of the ones that I thought were the most interesting. The Guardian: In California’s interior, there’s no escape from the desperate heat: ‘Why are we even here?’…
Read More
The Drought Monitor web site has been having some problems recently, so today’s drought map is from Drought.gov, its sister site. Because of recent rains, drought conditions improved there this week. They could see more improvement next week with rain from potential Tropical Storm Claudette, which is pulling itself together…
Read More
After twelve days in June, we are seeing quite a bit of variation across the region so far. Most of the region has been warmer than normal, especially eastern Virginia. Alabama is the only state that has most of its area cooler than normal, due in part to cloud cover…
Read More
Today, NOAA released their new climate normals for the 1991-2020 period. These 30-year averages replaced the old normals that covered the period from 1981-2010. This is done every ten years to provide a consistent period of time for use in comparing monthly and annual climate information. There have been a…
Read More