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The freezes that affected Florida, Georgia, and Alabama have made farmers in the affected counties eligible for emergency loans to cover losses from those counties. There were a total of five different triggering events with different sets of counties affected by each one. Applications for the loans are due by November 4, 2026. You can…
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The latest 7-day QPF map shows that the western parts of our region are likely to get rain in the next few days, particularly in the Wednesday through Friday period. Some isolated spots in Alabama could get 2-3 inches but most areas will get less than that, and as you go east the amounts that…
Posted in: Climate outlooks -
The Hot-Dry-Windy Index (HDW) is a new index produced by USDA that is now available online at https://hdwindex.fs2c.usda.gov/index.html. It was designed to help users determine which days are more likely to have adverse atmospheric conditions that make it more difficult to manage a wildland fire. It combines weather data from the surface and low levels…
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The latest Drought Monitor, released last week Thursday, show some slight improvements in northern parts of the region but conditions that are getting worse in southern parts of the region. The improvements were driven by rainfall of an inch or more with 2-3 inches in a few scattered spots. I was surprised that they made…
Posted in: Drought -
In past years, the federal government has commissioned regular reports assessing the state of the climate as required by Congress. I worked as an author on the 5th National Climate Assessment helping write the Southeast chapter, which was published a couple of years ago. Congress also asked for regular assessments of the health of nature…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
While the official records for winter 2025-2026 are not yet in, unofficially this is one of the warmest winters for the United States on record. For those in the eastern third of the country, it probably did not feel like it considering the repeated advances of cold air into the region, bringing in snowy and…
Posted in: Climate summaries -
As you know if you have read this blog for a while, March 1 marks the official start of climatological spring, which runs from March 1 through May 31. Of course, signs of spring have been all around us here in the Southeast already, but you can expect to see a rapid increase in leaves…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news