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Today is the first day of the official tropical season in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. And right on time, we see a 10% chance of formation from a disorganized system of clouds. As we swing from El Niño to La Niña this summer, we are likely to see fewer than usual storms in the Eastern…
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The Southeast Farm Press reported this week that a frost which hit the Tobacco Belt in mid-April caused damage to some young tobacco transplants this year. Initial concerns were for a significantly reduced crop, but most fields have recovered with little loss, it appears. The report states that “The damage seemed worse on the light/sandy…
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In preparation for an interview next week, I am reading “The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl.” It’s a great book, and I am enjoying it. I was struck this morning by a description of the dust storms of mid-May, 1934 (82 years ago this week),…
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While this weekend will be dry across the Southeast, starting by mid-week we should return to a wetter pattern, and we could see up to two inches of rain in some areas by Friday. A few locations could see even more. This appears to be a shift to wetter conditions overall, according to maps from…
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Even though California needs rain to combat the multi-year drought they’ve been experiencing, rain at the wrong time can hurt the production of fruit and other crops. The Packer noted this week that rain in California delayed the harvest of cherries in parts of the state and heavy rains and temperature fluctuations in early May…
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The latest Southern SARE newsletter is now available. You can view it here. It lists a variety of workshops and other activities in sustainable agriculture, including livestock and cover crop workshops, that might be of interest.
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In addition to the data access site cli-MATE from the Midwestern Regional Climate Center, there is another web site which provides access to the National Weather Service’s cooperative weather observing network. It’s called xmACIS and contains a lot of the same information as the cli-MATE site (in fact, it’s built on the same datasets). You…