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The latest Drought Monitor, released last week Thursday, show some slight improvements in northern parts of the region but conditions that are getting worse in southern parts of the region. The improvements were driven by rainfall of an inch or more with 2-3 inches in a few scattered spots. I was surprised that they made…
Posted in: Drought -
In past years, the federal government has commissioned regular reports assessing the state of the climate as required by Congress. I worked as an author on the 5th National Climate Assessment helping write the Southeast chapter, which was published a couple of years ago. Congress also asked for regular assessments of the health of nature…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
While the official records for winter 2025-2026 are not yet in, unofficially this is one of the warmest winters for the United States on record. For those in the eastern third of the country, it probably did not feel like it considering the repeated advances of cold air into the region, bringing in snowy and…
Posted in: Climate summaries -
As you know if you have read this blog for a while, March 1 marks the official start of climatological spring, which runs from March 1 through May 31. Of course, signs of spring have been all around us here in the Southeast already, but you can expect to see a rapid increase in leaves…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
The latest 7-day QPF map shows that very little rain will fall across the region in the next week. A big area of high pressure will dominate most of the Southeast and only the edges of the high will see rainfall. That includes mostly NW Alabama and parts of Virginia. By late in the week…
Posted in: Climate outlooks -
According to a recent news story published by the Miami Herald, “With farmers caught shorthanded and with crops not ready for harvesting, a pair of winter storms at the beginning and end of January potentially inflicted more than $3.17 billion in losses to the state’s agricultural industry.” The story goes on to note that winter…
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With just a couple of days left in the official winter season, we can see that the region as a whole was much drier than normal for the last 90 days, as we would expect in a La Nina winter, even though it was a fairly weak event. The temperature across the region is expected…