• Here is a reminder that drought is not all bad for farmers, from an article earlier this week in Growing Produce. While drought has many negative effects on crops, it also reduces a lot of diseases and also cuts down on the number of some pests that may be damaging the plants. Some farmers prefer…

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  • In my other blog this week at the Garden Professors, I wrote a post about the four types of drought that occur and how they can affect gardens and gardeners. You might be interested in reading it too. You can access it at https://gardenprofessors.com/how-dry-i-am-four-types-of-drought-and-how-they-can-affect-gardeners-and-gardens/.

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  • The Drought Monitor was released right before Thanksgiving and shows a big expansion in moderate (D1) drought in Virginia, North and South Carolina this week. Georgia and Alabama do not have any drought but abnormally dry (D0) conditions expanded quite a bit. Florida is the only state that does not have any dry conditions. Puerto…

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  • The latest 7-day QPF map shows no rain in most of the region this week and none at all until the last two days of the week as the next storm system approaches from the west. If you want to see the QPF maps for shorter time periods, you can visit https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/qpf/day1-7.shtml to see the…

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  • Do you ever wonder where the winter forecasts for the United States come from and how they determine what the likely conditions are going to be? The Europeans do similar forecasts for their own winter, and this long and detailed article from Severe Weather Europe provides a lot of information into how the forecasts are…

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  • Happy Thanksgiving!

    I am thankful to all my readers, especially those who get my email of posts every day! I appreciate your attention and your comments. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and a great holiday season coming up. Maybe even a little snow for some of you, although December so far looks warmer than…

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  • Changes in the frequency of heavy rain and cold outbreaks have caused challenges for fruit growers in Michigan, where I grew up. Late cold outbreaks in spring have caused frost damage to some fruit like blueberries and peaches, and heavy rains have caused erosion and other issues for many orchards. There are some methods producers…

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