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Nature published an article in June showing that using no-till agriculture cooled fields in Europe by up to two degrees C on the hottest days of summer. The cooling was caused by increased reflection off of the fields from the cover, which reflected more sunlight than the bare dark earth and kept the energy balance…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
A couple of articles this week discussed breeding tomatoes and sweet peas to take advantage of different weather and climate conditions while also improving marketability. Food Arts magazine described recent work by Calvin Lamborn, the first man to produce the commercial sugar snap pea in 1979. He is now working to produce new breeds with…
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Nearly 100 Extension agents and scientists from around the Southeast will be meeting in Athens GA in early September to study climate variability and change and its impacts on agriculture as part of the Southern Region Extension Climate Academy (SRECA). These participants were identified by their deans as agents with special expertise in row crops,…
Posted in: Events -
I was in Jekyll Island last week attending the Georgia Environmental Conference and saw this beautiful scene outside my hotel window one morning: The rays which appear to be stretching out from the horizon are called crepuscular rays, and are actually beams of sunlight shining through breaks in clouds below the horizon. You can…
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The 7-day forecast for the next week shows that there will be little rain across most of the Southeast except near the coasts and in south Florida. Temperatures should be cooler than usual to near normal. Because of the dry conditions that are expected, drought conditions may expand over the region. Farmers and agricultural…
Posted in: Climate outlooks -
After a lengthy development period, the National Hurricane Center has identified a good circulation in the disturbance previously known as Tropical Depression 4 and has named it Tropical Storm Cristobal. The movement of this storm is slow and forecasts of the path show that it will have minimal impact on the Southeast. The greatest impacts…
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The Grower reported this week that TS Iselle destroyed a significant part of the papaya crop for this year, killing over 20 percent of all Hawaiian papaya trees. High winds and torrential rain also caused widespread power outages and flooding. However, because of advance notice of the storm’s movement, Maui onion growers were able to…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news