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It looks like a fairly dry week for most of the Southeast this week, with a bit of rain coming Sunday into Monday but not much else except right along the East Coast. Not too surprising for fall, which is normally the driest season.
Posted in: Climate outlooks -
Here is a new report on the state of water in Georgia from the Georgia Water Coalition. According to their release, the report highlights the history, economics, water demand trends, forecasts, and regulatory nature of irrigated agriculture in Georgia and also takes a look at irrigation in neighboring states. You can read it at https://www.gawater.org/watering-georgia-report.
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
Dry conditions in the Carolinas this past week have resulted in the expansion of moderate drought in central South and North Carolina. A small decrease in abnormally dry conditions was also seen in Virginia. Otherwise conditions remained generally stable in Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
Posted in: Drought -
The latest estimates from the USDA regarding the orange harvest this year have dropped the expected yield by 7.4 percent, to 50 million boxes, from last month’s estimate. Producers generally considered last month’s estimates too high because all of the accumulated losses from Hurricane Irma have not yet been seen, much less quantified. Some delayed…
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How old can grapevines get and still produce a good crop? Atlas Obscura has a short but interesting story this week on a vine in England that has been producing sweet dessert grapes for over 250 years. When they were originally produced, only royalty could eat the fruit, but now it is available to the…
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Ten months through 2017, most of the Southeast is still on a record-setting warm pace, even though the El Niño is long gone. Rainfall overall has been very close to normal, although with above normal temperatures it’s not surprising that we’ve seen some dry soils across parts of the region. You can read more at…
Posted in: Climate summaries -
A recent news release from the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences described the efforts of Dr. Tim Brenneman to introduce the production of truffles to Georgia pecan orchards. You’ve probably heard of the fancy European truffles that are used to flavor foods like risotto, but may not know that the roots…