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According to an analysis of tornadoes by ENSO phase, a year with a La Niña present is more likely to have tornadoes in northern and western parts of the Southeast, while a year with an El Niño is likely to have more tornadoes in southern Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Since we are currently in a…
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The New York Times posted an interesting article on the changing nature of droughts in Kenya and other parts of Africa. According to trends over the last thirty years, droughts are becoming more frequent and are getting worse. This is impacting livestock producers there, who are having a more difficult time feeding and maintaining their…
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The Douglasville (GA) Patch has an interesting article about using goats as landscape tenders this week. You might have heard of cities using goats to clean up unwanted weeds in difficult terrain. In this case, the US Army Corps of Engineers is using a herd of 16 goats, known as the “Chew Crew”, to maintain…
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Drought conditions in parts of the US are affecting the expansion of beef cattle herds due to lack of feed and adverse growing conditions, according to an article in AgWeb this week. Drought from last summer in the High Plains and continuing drought through fall and winter in the southwestern US, including Texas, have impacted…
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EarthSky posted a request from NASA to help with a citizen science project to observe clouds across the country. According to the story, “from March 15 through April 15, citizen scientists of all ages can make up to 10 cloud observations per day using the free GLOBE Observer app (get the app here or at your phone’s app store).…
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A slow-moving front which will cross the Southeast in the next few days should bring much-needed rain to drought-stricken parts of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. We may see some improvements in next week’s Drought Monitor as a result. By Thursday, the front should be out of the area, leading to dry conditions going into next…
Posted in: Climate outlooks -
Bloomberg.com has an interesting article this week about how natural disasters are costing farmers billions of dollars a year in damage to infrastructure, loss of livestock and crops, and challenges in getting food to markets. While the story discusses trends in natural disasters over time, I think another consideration is that producers are now more…