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The latest monthly climate report for October 2023 was released by NOAA earlier this week. It shows that for the US as a whole, a lot of the country was pretty close to normal, with the exception of the Northeast and Southwest. There was even an area below normal in southeastern Montana. The precipitation percent…
Posted in: Climate summaries -
In the past few weeks I’ve been getting phone calls from cattle producers in NW Georgia and NE Alabama to complain about the Drought Monitor depiction in their area. Many of these counties have not seen much if any rain in weeks, and with the higher than normal temperatures we are experiencing, their soils are…
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If you have ever lived through a natural disaster caused by a hazard like a tornado, hurricane, or flood, you know the importance of help to recover from the disaster. The first help often comes from neighbors and friends, but later the government plays a big role in providing shelter, health care, and food, followed…
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I continue to get questions about when the El Nino winter rains will kick in. While it looks like we will have a few more warm and dry days this week, rain is returning to the region on Thursday and will help to shift us out of the long dry pattern. Areas in southern GA…
Posted in: Climate outlooks -
As the climate gets warmer, other impacts that can affect agriculture are also being observed. Warmer winters mean more overwintering of pests and diseases. A longer growing season can make your fields and orchards more susceptible to pests that were previously not an issue. Warmer conditions may also shorten the time between generations of insects,…
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The latest Drought Monitor shows significant increases in drought in Virginia and North Carolina with slightly smaller increases in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida this week. Almost no rain fell in the region in the past week, contributing to the expansion of drought. The completely dry conditions are expected to last for another week…
Posted in: Drought -
The North Carolina State Climate Office has published their October 2023 climate summary. It was their 10th driest October on record. You can view it at their climate blog at https://climate.ncsu.edu/blog/2023/11/drought-digs-in-during-a-bone-dry-october/.
Posted in: Climate summaries