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Monthly Archives: February 2015
How is the cold weather affecting citrus crops?
Last week was one of the coldest of the season in the southeast United States and such events have been known to present a substantial threat to the citrus industry in Florida.
The problem is that when the temperature gets below freezing, the fruit itself can freeze, rendering it substantially less valuable to the market. Continue reading
How severe has this winter been?
Last year we experienced a persistently cold winter (December-January-February) that ended up being the coldest since 1979.
This year has been different. The Midwest Regional Climate Center is experimenting with what they are calling the Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI), which incorporates temperature, snowfall and snow depth to rate the severity of winter. Continue reading
Is the ground temperature changing?
First, let’s consider air temperature.
The Wisconsin Initiative for Climate Change Impacts, or WICCI, analyzed data from 1950 to 2006, a 57-year period. Wisconsin has warmed during this period.
The observed warming since 1950 has been greatest in winter, with an average increase of 2.5 degrees across Wisconsin. Winter temperatures in northwestern Wisconsin have increased by 3.5 to 4.5 degrees. Continue reading
How hard do weather forecasters work?
In the wake of a remarkable, but not perfect, forecast of a paralyzing blizzard that affected the Northeast last week, one may wonder how much effort is expended by an individual forecaster.
Since it takes only a minute or two to deliver a forecast on the evening news, it is easy to mistakenly view the process as taking very little effort or care. Continue reading
