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Did you know that North Carolina produces 60% of all of the sweet potatoes grown in the US? This year that number could be down quite a bit due to the rainfall from Hurricane Florence, which hit at the worst possible time for sweet potato producers. According to this article in Modern Farmer, producers were…
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The latest Drought Monitor released this morning shows that moderate drought has expanded in southern South Carolina and in parts of Georgia. Georgia is now almost 50% covered by abnormally dry conditions or drought due to the warm and dry conditions we have experienced in the last week. An area of abnormally dry conditions was…
Posted in: Drought -
This year has not been great for watermelon production in Florida. Some late frosts and unusual wet spells caused problems for producers and led to lower yields of good melons than usual. But the lower yields also led to higher prices, which added value to the watermelons that did make it through the season. You…
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I’ve been getting a lot of questions about when we will start to experience fall temperatures. Unfortunately, I don’t see any short-term change in the weather pattern. We are currently under the influence of a large dome of high pressure which is fending off colder air and keeping us warm and dry. While this is…
Posted in: Climate outlooks -
While here in the Southeast we have hurricanes to deal with, in Hawaii they also have volcanoes. That sometimes also cause earthquakes. And when they erupt, it’s a whole different kind of catastrophe. Here is an interesting article from Sioux Honey on one Hawaiian beekeeper’s problems with both the volcanic eruption and the rain from…
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Earlier this summer I pointed out the extremely dry conditions that have been occurring in Europe. This drought has continued and now as the harvest approaches there, farmers are feeling the pinch with poor crop yields, especially in wheat. You can read more about the impact of the drought on crops and their prices at…
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You can read the latest monthly climate summary for Florida at https://climatecenter.fsu.edu/products-services/summaries?id=528. It says that the tropical storm that eliminated drought in the Florida panhandle was Dennis, but I think they meant Gordon instead.
Posted in: Climate summaries