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MU Expert Predicts Hot, Dry Summer for Midwest

By Guest PostMarch 4, 2012EnvironmentAl Gore, climate pattern, drought, eastern pacific ocean, global climate change, heat dome, la niña, la nina scenario, midwest, missouri area, nobel peace prize, precipitation, purdue, rainfall, southwest united states, summer, temperature, texas to iowa, thunderstorms, tony lupo, university of missouri, weather

COLUMBIA, Mo. – For nearly a year, the Midwest and southwest United States have experienced drought and warmer than normal conditions. A University of Missouri expert is predicting no relief, as he expects drought and hot conditions to continue this summer.

“I expect one of two scenarios to play out; the first is a continued La Nina climate pattern to affect our weather this summer,” said Tony Lupo, professor and chair of the Department of Atmospheric Science in the School of Natural Resources. “This will lead to a drought and above average heat throughout the Midwest from Texas to Iowa, where farmers with parched fields can least afford dry conditions. However, it is also possible that a new El Nino pattern could develop this fall. While I don’t see this happening, it would bring more favorable temperatures and precipitation patterns to the Midwest.” (more…)

Today’s Severe Drought, Tomorrow’s Normal

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2011Environmentatmospheric greenhouse gases, balance, benjamin santer, berkeley lab, canada, century, climate models, david easterling, drought, dust bowl, evapotranspiration, global climate, jay lawrimore, Mexico, michael wehner, noaa, normal occurrence, North America, oklahoma, precipitation, richard heim, russell vose, severe drought conditions, simulations, state-of-the-art, texas, united states, warming planet

*Berkeley Lab scientists part of team that analyzed 19 state-of-the-art climate models.*

While the worst drought since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s grips Oklahoma and Texas, scientists are warning that what we consider severe drought conditions in North America today may be normal for the continent by the mid-21^st century, due to a warming planet.

A team of scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) came to this conclusion after analyzing 19 different state-of-the-art climate models. Looking at the balance between precipitation and evapotranspiration—the movement of water from soil to air—they found that no matter how rainfall patterns change over the next 100 years, a warming planet leads to drought. Their results were published in the December 2011 issue of the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Hydrometerology. (more…)

Computer Helps MSU Researchers Unravel Plants’ Secrets to Survival

By Guest PostSeptember 5, 2011Sciencealexander seddon, arabidopsis thaliana, artificial intelligence of computers, bacterial infection, cheng zou, cis regulatory elements, cluster of computers, drought, extreme environments, genes, genome wide scale, heat, joshua mackaluso, kelian sun, michael thomashow, michigan state university, plant and computer scientists, plants, rong jin, shin han shiu

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Recent research by Michigan State University scientists has shed more light on how plants are able to cope with extreme environments.

However, the name of one of the key contributors to the work, which is detailed in the online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is not listed among the paper’s authors. That’s because it’s a cluster of computers. (more…)

Climate Adaptation of Rice

By Guest PostJuly 17, 2011Environmentbacteria, China, climate change, climate impacts on plants, developing countries, disease, dna of the rice plant, drought, dunegrass, endophytes, genetically unrelated plant species, geothermal, heat tolerant plants, microscopic fungi, minimum air temperature, native plants, natural and agricultural ecosystems, process of darwinian evolution, rice, rusty rodriguez, salt, salt tolerant, seattle, seawater, symbiogenics, symbiotic endophytes, temperature, the philippines, tiny fungi, U.S. Geological Survey

*Symbiogenics — a New Strategy for Reducing Climate Impacts on Plants*

Seattle – Rice – which provides nearly half the daily calories for the world’s population – could become adapted to climate change and some catastrophic events by colonizing its seeds or plants with the spores of tiny naturally occurring fungi, just-published U.S. Geological Survey-led research shows.

In an effort to explore ways to increase the adaptability of rice to climatic scourges such as tsunamis and tidal surges that have already led to rice shortages, USGS researchers and their colleagues colonized two commercial varieties of rice with the spores of fungi that exist naturally within native coastal (salt-tolerant) and geothermal (heat-tolerant) plants. (more…)

Economic Cost of Weather May Total $485 Billion in U.S.

By Guest PostJune 25, 2011Environmentaverage precipitation, changes in the weather, cooler than average days, drought, economic impact, economic model, Economy, geographic pattern, hurricanes, impacts of climate change, jeff lazo, national center for atmospheric research, national oceanic and atmospheric administration, national science foundation, ncar, new york, noaa, nsf, precipitation, rain, sarah ruth, stratford, summer thunderstorms, temperature, tennessee, texas, tornado outbreaks, tornadoes, u.s economy, united states, variations in temperature, weather events, weather sensitivity, weather variations

*Routine weather events can add up to huge annual economic impact*

Everything has its price, even the weather.

New research indicates that routine weather events such as rain and cooler-than-average days can add up to an annual economic impact of as much as $485 billon in the United States.

The study, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), found that finance, manufacturing, agriculture and every other sector of the economy is sensitive to changes in the weather. The impacts can be felt in every state. (more…)

Tag Archives: drought

MU Expert Predicts Hot, Dry Summer for Midwest

Today’s Severe Drought, Tomorrow’s Normal

Computer Helps MSU Researchers Unravel Plants’ Secrets to Survival

Climate Adaptation of Rice

Economic Cost of Weather May Total $485 Billion in U.S.