• A recent study of perceptions of climate change (published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society) shows that there are significant differences between attitudes of scientists and agricultural producers on the causes of climate change.  Over 90 percent of scientists are sure that climate change is occurring and more than 50 percent attribute it…

    Posted in:
  • If you like to follow social media on your computer or smart phone, you might want to check out this list of social media web sites provided by National Weather Service offices across the Southeast.  Most of these offices provide weather updates, storm information and other weather-related information through Facebook and Twitter.  Here is the…

    Posted in:
  • The cool conditions continue for at least the next week.  Rain is expected to move into the area on Sunday night and last through Monday, bringing up to 1.5 inches to some areas.  After that, even colder air moves into the state, with the possibility of breaking record low maximum temperatures on Tuesday and low…

    Posted in:
  • The latest Drought Monitor, released yesterday, shows that abnormally dry conditions have expanded in the Southeast.  Most of the increase is in the Carolinas, where abnormally dry conditions have spread across much of those states.  But other areas are also seeing the effects of the lack of rainfall as well.  So far in Athens GA…

    Posted in:
  • One of the toughest things for climatologists to explain is what a 55 percent chance of El Nino or a 40 percent chance of an above normal winter is.  Two examples of probabilistic forecasts are shown below.  The pie chart is from AgroClimate.org and the bar graph is from IRI at Columbia University. Most people think…

    Posted in: , ,
  • The current outbreak of cold air that has moved into the Southeast from Canada is blowing strongly outside my window tonight, dropping temperatures quickly to near-freezing levels.  This outbreak is so strong that it has produced a “Tehuantepecer” or flow across Mexico from the Gulf of Mexico into the Pacific Ocean basin.  You can read…

    Posted in:
  • Today NOAA released its climate summary for the US for the month of October.  It shows that for the continental US as a whole, October 2014 was the fourth warmest on record.  Most of this heat was driven by record-setting warmth in the western US due to the continuing drought in California and surrounding states. …

    Posted in: