• Another “great” historical weather event happened in February 1899 when a frigid airmass moved from west to east through the country, dropping temperatures and causing the deaths of over 100 people as well as killing numerous livestock and destroying numerous crops, including a large number of orchards in Georgia. You can read more about this…

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  • William Schmitz of the Southeast Regional Climate Center put together a scorecard of how the rainfall conditions this winter (December to February to date) compare to previous strong El Niño events.  You can see the scorecard at https://www.sercc.com/ElNinoRainScorecard.pdf.  The scorecard shows that the 1997-98 event set records across the region for the wettest DJF on record.…

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  • A few months ago I shared a photo of pink flowers filling the Atacama Desert in Chile, a rare event caused by unusual rains in the region most likely linked to El Niño.  Today you might enjoy a video of the wildflowers that are blooming in Death Valley due to the El Niño rains that…

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  • If you are old like me and have lived in the Southeast for most of your life, you may remember the snowstorm that occurred across much of the Southeast in February 1973.  Some areas of Georgia and South Carolina received more than 18 inches in the storm, which occurred from February 9 to 11.  The…

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  • As part of the celebration of the International Year of Soil, the New York Times published an article this week on the value of planting cover crops between regular harvests.  Among the benefits: increase in soil carbon, decrease in erosion, reduction in compaction, lower fertilizer costs, and improvement in crop yields.  And as I’ve pointed…

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  • Chris Robbins’ blog at iWeatherNet.com noted that today is the birthday of the National Weather Service.  Here is how his entry begins: “The Weather Bureau, now known as the National Weather Service, was established on February 9, 1870 by the 41stUnited States Congress and signed by President Ulysses S. Grant.  On March 29, 1870, the…

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  • There have been a number of articles published lately on the impacts of warming temperatures that are already being observed on different animal species.  Yesterday I published a blog article on the impacts on ocean species.  Today I will focus on the impacts of changing climate on chickens and livestock and on cats and dogs.…

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