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In the Southeast you’ve enjoyed a wonderful warm, sunny and dry week here. But to our west, our neighbors in east Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi have been inundated with heavy rain which is locked in place by the combination of a cut-off low pressure area to their southwest and a strong high pressure area…
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The 7-day QPF shows that the western portion of the Southeast should get the most rain in the next week. This will occur in two batches. The first event is a continuation of the rainy conditions that have plagued Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi this week in association with a cut-off low that is moving very…
Posted in: Climate outlooks -
I often get asked if this or that weather event was caused by climate change. In many cases it is impossible to answer the question directly because it depends on a lot of factors. Dr. Marshall Shepherd discusses this question in his latest blog post at Forbes.com here. Some events are easier to attribute to…
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A recent study published in Nature Climate Change shows that six of nine staple crops in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to be able to continue to be cultivated in a warmer climate. Three crops, however, maize, beans and bananas, will most likely no longer be viable in the new climate and will have to be…
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I read an interesting essay this week from July 2015 in Cracked.com describing a first-person experience with an EF5 tornado, in this case the one that hit Moore OK in May 2013. The story really brings home the need to prepare for unexpected disasters and what you can do to prepare for your own bad…
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The latest Drought Monitor shows that abnormally dry conditions have tripled in size since last week, covering over 6 percent of the area this week compared to 2 percent last week. The D0 conditions cover parts of southeast Georgia and northeast Florida, an area that has been largely missed by recent rains. Dry conditions that are…
Posted in: Drought -
University of Arizona researchers have shown that the number of hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea was 75% lower during the Maunder Minimum, a time period from roughly 1645-1715 AD. This is called the Maunder Minimum because there were fewer sunspots in that time period, which is also linked to a time of low solar activity. The…