• The latest ENSO outlook was released today by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. It shows that ENSO is likely to turn to El Nino in the May through July period and to persist through the winter. While there is still some uncertainty because of the spring predictability barrier, the forecasts show an 80 percent chance of…

    Posted in:
  • The latest Drought Monitor, released today, shows that there were only slight changes in drought this week. Abnormally dry (D0) conditions expanded in Virginia and extreme (D3) drought expanded slightly in Florida but other changes were small. Rain amounts this coming week are expected to be moderate in most areas so I don’t see any…

    Posted in:
  • Vegetable crops are harvested across the Southeast throughout the year. This time of year the production of cool-weather crops like broccoli is going full-speed. Here is a story from John Holcomb at the Farm Monitor describing how broccoli production is affected by soil moisture and heat stress. I was interested to read that monitoring soil…

    Posted in: ,
  • If you plant corn or work with farmers who do, you are probably well aware of the importance of watching soil temperatures before you plant. But if not, you might be interested in these Indiana PrairieFarmer stories that describe how soil temperature and moisture can affect corn germination and emergence. Farmers need to be aware…

    Posted in: ,
  • NOAA released their monthly climate statistics for the United States today. They showed that for most of our region, precipitation was wetter than normal, although some areas were near normal. The driest areas were southwest Georgia and northern Virginia. The temperature was mostly near or slightly above normal, but no records were set in the…

    Posted in:
  • The multiple atmospheric river events in California this year have caused massive areas of flooding that has damaged trees by suffocating their root systems. This is similar to damage that we have seen here in the Southeast with Hurricanes Ian this past year and Hurricanes Irma and Matthew in previous years. The result of this…

    Posted in: ,
  • The latest 7-day QPF map shows that rain amounts this week should be relatively light as we are in southerly flow with winds off the Gulf of Mexico. There is a chance of showers almost every day but they should be scattered and will not bring large amounts of rain. Severe weather is not expected…

    Posted in: