Pam Knox

  • Recent stories in the news

    While I’ve been on the road quite a bit in the last few weeks, I have seen a few stories you might be interested in. Washington Post: Cherry blossoms have bloomed longer than usual and aren’t done yet National Geographic: Did you enjoy the cherry blossoms’ early peak bloom? It was a warning sign. Indiana…

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  • The latest Drought Monitor, released today, shows a small decrease in drought conditions in Puerto Rico this week from timely rain. In the mainland, abnormally dry conditions expanded in eastern North Carolina and were added to the Florida peninsula, but were removed in southern Alabama. Rain in the next week should improve conditions in NC…

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  • According to NOAA’s latest monthly climate summary for the United States, March 2024 was the 17th warmest on record, but the year to date is the 5th warmest due to warm conditions in late January and February. The precipitation was in the wettest third of all years. You can read the NOAA news release describing…

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  • NOAA’s global climate summary for March 2024 was released late last week. It shows that the March 2024 average temperature for the globe was the warmest March on record, but it was only 0.01 C warmer than the previous record set in 2016 (also an El Nino year). The Southeast US was in the area…

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  • Mostly dry week ahead

    After all the rain we have been having, farmers are no doubt excited to hear that this week should be nearly dry for most of the region. That will allow a lot of planting and other field work to take place. The wettest areas will be in northern Alabama and eastern Virginia while Florida will…

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  • The latest ENSO forecast from NOAA, released today, shows that the expected transition away from El Nino to neutral conditions is underway and neutral conditions are likely (85%) by April-June 2024. It is then expected to swing to La Nina by June-August 2024 (60%). This is one factor in the recent prediction from Colorado State…

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  • The latest Drought Monitor, released today, shows that all drought conditions have been removed from the Southeast mainland but a few pockets of abnormally dry (D0) conditions are still lingering. In Puerto Rico, the drought conditions there have shrunk but a few small areas remain. With the recent rain, we are likely to see further…

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