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  • A recent study by USDA scientists in Tifton, GA shows that strip tillage and cover crops are important practices for reducing erosion from sandy soils in the Southeastern United States and for enhancing soil quality.  For example, use of cover crops mean crop residues remain on the surface, providing protection from water and wind erosion.…

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  • Five cold-weather myths

    With widespread frost expected across northern and central Alabama, Georgia and points farther east and the cold winter season upon us, you might find this blog post from the National Forests blog on myths about cold weather interesting.  For example, did you know that you do not lose most of your heat from the top…

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  • Dr. Jeff Lee, a professor of geosciences from Texas Tech, is featured in this videotaped lecture about causes of the Dust Bowl and whether a similar pattern could occur again.  The video is about 30 minutes long and is best at discussing the causes of the Dust Bowl.  It’s not the highest quality, but you…

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  • The USGS recorded a small earthquake magnitude 2.6 located 13 kilometers SSE of Eatonton, GA this morning at 9:48 EST.  Unless you were very close by, you probably did not feel it. You can see more information at https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/se60095802#impact_dyfi.  Since I moved to Georgia in 2001, I’ve felt two earthquakes in Athens, although I know more…

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  • Although it is only 1/3 of the way through the month, so far our region has seen rainfall that is much above normal in many areas, including Georgia.  The temperatures across the Southeast have also been above normal everywhere this month, even in the areas that were cloudy and cool from the persistent rain the…

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  • Last week NOAA released their annual evaluation of 28 separate weather disasters that occurred in 2014 along with a discussion of which if them were affected by trends linked to changing climate and other human factors like changes in land use.  This evaluation is published by the American Meteorological Society and is based on evaluations…

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  • Have you ever wondered how the local topography affects your local climate conditions?  Jake Crouch of NOAA’s Climate.gov has a nice blog post which describes how mountains and valleys affect climate.  Even though the mountains in the Southeast are not as tall as those in the West, they do provide quite a bit of climate…

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