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When I was a kid in Michigan, my grandmother’s yard was filled with sassafras trees. So I was very interested in this article from the USDA about ambrosia beetles, which can kill a sassafras tree in just four weeks. Will milder winters cause the trees I remember from Michigan succumb to ambrosia beetles in the…
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The latest climate outlook for February and for February through April was released by NOAA earlier this week. It shows that the most likely conditions are for warmer and drier conditions to cover much of the Southeast, especially in Florida and the southern parts of Alabama and Georgia. Areas to the north of that could…
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Time magazine posted an interesting photo essay recently describing changes in ice taking place around Antarctica. Climatologists know that the high latitudes (both in the Arctic and Antarctic) are the most likely places to see the impacts of changing climate because of the albedo effect, which affects how much sunlight is absorbed by the ground…
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As a former National Weather Service employee with many friends currently working in the NWS, I have been following the evolving government shutdown carefully. Many NWS employees are considered essential, so they will be working through the shutdown, but a number of services will be stopped until the shutdown ends. Hopefully, these folk will get…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
Southeast Farm Press posted a story this week about how a dry spell in fall benefited burley tobacco growers in Tennessee and Kentucky. The dry spell in September helped the tobacco dry down in the field, but by October, moister air helped them achieve the desired color. The absence of an early frost also helped…
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Eric Prostko of UGA has an interesting discussion about whether the presence of morning dew on plants affects the potency of herbicides in the Southeast Farm Press this week. He discusses the potential effects of the water on the leaf and positive and negative effects of that water on herbicide effectiveness. He also discusses weighing…
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The latest 7 day QPF map shows that almost all areas of the Southeast will receive less than half an inch this week. The only exceptions are parts of the Appalachian Mountains and a small area near Miami. Most of that will fall on Monday. This means we are unlikely to see an improvement in…
Posted in: Climate outlooks