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The Panama City News-Herald reported today that the insured losses from Hurricane Michael have climbed above $5.4 billion as of this week, with 74 percent of the claims settled so far. Most of these are property damage claims. You can read more here.
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While I was driving home from a meeting with farmers in Albany, GA today I heard this great story on National Public Radio about the Oklahoma network of weather stations that is similar to the UGA network here in Georgia, although the Oklahoma mesonet is larger, older and much better staffed. The story details some…
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If you are used to getting your weather using an app on your smartphone, you need to be aware that apps are not the best source of weather information when we are in a rapidly changing weather event. That could be during a tornado or hurricane or even in a fast-moving cold front like today,…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
As we wait for the cold front to move through the Southeast tonight into tomorrow, I noticed that the highest temperatures in Georgia are in the northwestern part of the state. That is the area closest to the front, and is in an area of fairly strong winds blowing in from the southwest. Those winds…
Posted in: Climate science -
The Southeast Farm Press reported this week that drier conditions in January have allowed cotton fields to dry off, allowing the resumption of cotton harvest. In early January 10-15 percent of the crop was still in the field, but by the end of the month just 5-10 percent of the crop was still left to…
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You may have seen some references to the extreme heat that has been hitting Australia in recent weeks. It has caused numerous health problems and resulted in the deaths of wild horses in the Outback where water holes have dried up. Here is a story about the impact of the heat on stone fruit like…
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Earlier this month the journal Nature published an article looking at tree cover around the world and how it has changed over time. The article discussed how effective planting more trees will be at combating climate change in the future. The conclusions are that while planting new trees does have beneficial effects, they are probably…