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I love to read stories about places that are set outside my local community, especially if they give me new insight into how things are changing over time. This story on rural Kansas in NewFoodEconomy.org provides a look at how agriculture has contributed to long-term trends in the region, including negligible population growth, increases in…
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The latest outlook maps from the Climate Prediction Center show an increased chance of above normal temperatures across the country in May. Precipitation in the Southeast shows a tendency towards drier than normal conditions in the Tennessee River Valley, which is consistent with recent research showing the highest likelihood of dry conditions in that region…
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When we talk about climate change, most often we are talking about the changes in temperature, cloud cover and rainfall that are occurring due to increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases across the globe. But climate also changes locally, and many of these local changes are due to other human causes such as…
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April is almost over, and the preliminary climate maps for the month show that most of the Southeast, with the exception of the Florida peninsula, will end up colder than normal. Precipitation amounts are more variable than temperature but also show that much of the region was wetter than normal, with the exception of southern…
Posted in: Climate summaries -
In 1996-97 I worked as an intern for National Public Radio’s Science Friday. I think it is one of the best (and only) major radio coverage of science on the air. This week they offered a long discussion with Andrew Revkin on four billion years of weather and climate based on his new book, Weather:…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
The latest 7-day QPF map shows that no rain is expected in almost all of the Southeast this week. The weekend should be completely dry except for some weak showers along the Appalachian Mountains, then no rain in the region until Thursday and Friday, when a front moving into the region from the west will…
Posted in: Climate outlooks -
In the past week I’ve run across several sources of maps related to various aspects of climate that you might find useful. NOAA Global Vegetation Health Maps show the conditions of vegetation around the world on zoomable maps. Data are based on satellite scans from space. https://www.climate.gov/maps-data/dataset/global-vegetation-health-images for information or go directly to the map browser at https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/smcd/emb/vci/VH/vh_browseVH.php.…