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Do you have a story about the value of federal climate data to your work that you are willing to share? Scientists are compiling stories about how valuable the climate centers, the USDA Agricultural Statistics Service, the Drought Monitor and other federal agency products are to your activities as a farmer, extension agent, or agribusiness…
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In the past I’ve discussed some new crops that are starting to appear in the Southeast, either after a long hiatus or for the first time, like satsumas and olives. Growing Produce discussed another new crop which is starting to appear in Florida–the artichoke. Now 99% of production occurs in California because the climate there…
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While the dry conditions in the Southeast have eased in recent weeks due to the welcome (mostly) rain we have received, livestock producers in the Northern Plains have not fared so well. Much above normal temperatures coupled with dry conditions have led to increasing drought in the region, stopping the growth of pastures and forage…
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Yale Climate Connections has an interesting audio story on how in professional baseball, pitchers are more likely to hit batters than in cooler weather. They speculate that the heat makes the pitchers more ornery and so they are more likely to throw at the batter than when the air is not as hot. You can…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
Here’s an inspiring story about a family of weather observers in Edenton NC who have been serving as cooperative observers for the National Weather Service for the last 120 years! Climatologists depend on help from dedicated volunteers like this family to provide long-term reliable and consistent observations of weather which can show us trends and…
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In the past I worked for the National Weather Service in the Office of Hydrology, determining the magnitude of 100-year rainfalls. A 100-year-rainfall is the amount of rain that has a 1 in 100 chance of occurrence in a given year. Note that it does not mean that it can only happen once in a…
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KQED Science had an interesting article this week about how historical paintings from the past can shed light on the amount of pollutants (both natural pollutants like volcanic particulates and human-injected pollutants from industry and transportation) in the atmosphere and how they change the way the sky looks. I’ve talked about this in the past,…