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The National Phenology Network provides maps that trace the movement of the spring “green wave” north as the year progresses. Citizen scientists track events like the first green leaf, the first bloom on a plum tree, and other weather-related biological signs to see how they vary from one year to the next. This year’s map…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
Now that fruit crops have received plenty of chill hours, farmers are starting to think about what they might have to do if an average or late frost brings killing temperatures back to the Southeast. Unfortunately, once the blooms arrive, options for protection are limited. You can read about some of the options in Vegetable…
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Do you use predictions of seasonal climate to plan your farm work? Or are you frustrated because they don’t seem to be very useful? I’ve been getting a lot of complaints this year about how bad the climate forecast for winter was because what we have seen so far has not matched the predictions in…
Posted in: Climate science -
Now that Texas is thawing out from its bitter cold blast, producers are starting to come to terms with what they have lost from the frost and snow as well as from loss of power and water. Here are several stories about agricultural losses in Texas and other parts of the central US from the…
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Every meteorologist I know has to put up with comments from people about getting paid to be wrong all the time. Another myth that we often hear is that severe weather comes “without warning” or “out of the blue.” This week meteorologists won a battle against this when Southern Living was forced to retract an…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
With the frigid air and severe impacts hitting the central US last week, there has been a lot of discussion in the news and in the hallways about whether or not climate change is making cold outbreaks like these more likely. One rationale for why it might is that with the Arctic warming up so…
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With the cold weather we have been having in the Southeast (although it is nothing compared to Texas and the central US), the number of chill hours that our fruit crops have received this year is quite a bit more than last year, although still below the long-term average amounts. That means that most varieties…