-
Clint Thompson of the University of Georgia published a report this week on the impacts of heavy rain in June on watermelon production. According to the story, “Georgia farmers had fewer opportunities to effectively harvest watermelons in June thanks to an increase in rain, but disease pressure is what truly led to lower yields in…
-
NOAA released the national climate summary for July 2017 this week. It shows that this July was the 10th warmest in 123 years of record for the US. The year to date average temperature is the second warmest on record after 2012 at this time of year. It is also the seventh wettest year to…
-
This has been a pretty wet summer so far, and that means we probably have a better than usual chance of having some clouds for the eclipse on August 21. Even if the sky is completely cloud-covered, we will still experience effects from the eclipse, in particular the darkness that comes when most of the…
-
Here is a very interesting article about how the percentage of land in agriculture across the world has changed over time. If you look at the changes in cropland in the Southeast, you can see decreases in the coastal plains and increases in other areas. Not too surprising, since forested land is not considered to…
-
AgWeb had a short but interesting article this week about how variable weather this year is making it hard for market watchers to predict how much corn and other grains are likely to be produced this year. Yields are hardest to predict for dryland crops, since they depend so much on the patterns of rainfall…
-
If you’ve been following the news you may have heard about a draft report produced as part of the National Climate Assessment, which is required by the federal government ( I believe it started during the presidency of President George H. W. Bush) to update its findings on climate in the US every four years.…
-
The University of Vermont published the results of a study of farmers in the Northeast and what they think about risks due to changes in climate that have occurred over time and may occur in the future. In this study, Vermont farmers identified many site-specific risks that they associate with weather fluctuations and climate change.…