Sacramento | Reuters — Rain-soaked Californians took advantage of a break in a weeks-long deluge to haul away dead trees, restore downed power lines and prepare new stacks of sandbags before another series of storms hits the state beginning Friday. In Monterey County along the state’s central coast, communities near the still-rising Salinas River were […] Read more

California picks up debris from latest storm, braces for next
Also: Why all this rain won't end California's drought

Last year tied as world’s fifth-warmest on record, U.S. scientists say
Global CO2 emissions continue to rise
Brussels | Reuters — Last year was the world’s joint fifth-warmest on record and the last nine years were the nine warmest since pre-industrial times, putting the 2015 Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global warming to 1.5 C in serious jeopardy, U.S. scientists said on Thursday. Last year tied with 2015 as the fifth-warmest year […] Read more

Worst drought in decades sees Argentina exchange slash soy, corn forecasts
Buenos Aires | Reuters — Argentina’s Rosario Grains exchange sharply cut its forecast for the 2022-23 soybean harvest to 37 million tonnes from a previous forecast of 49 million, it said on Wednesday, as the country faces its worst drought in 60 years. The exchange also slashed its 2022-23 corn harvest estimate to around 45 […] Read more

Another ‘atmospheric river’ storm renews flood threat in California
Sacramento | Reuters — Emergency crews braced for the next bout of high winds and torrential rains forecast to sweep California starting on Wednesday, renewing the threat of power outages and flooding that struck parts of the state over the New Year’s weekend. The latest “atmospheric river” — an airborne current of dense moisture flowing […] Read more

Northern California deluge’s current rainfall level expected again
Flood risk to continue into next week
MarketsFarm — While the deluge of rain over northern California took a day’s break on Tuesday, agricultural meteorologist Drew Lerner of World Weather Inc. said the heavy precipitation would soon resume. Following the worst drought in California history, the state has been receiving very intense precipitation that’s brought flooding to its northern areas. “It will […] Read more

CBOT weekly outlook: U.S. winter wheat to feel the cold
Crop off to 'a really bad start'
MarketsFarm — With frigid weather coming out of the Arctic, across the Canadian Prairies and into the U.S., there has been an upswing in wheat prices at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Prior to Christmas Day, temperatures are expected to fall as cold as -40 C in the northern Plains to below freezing in […] Read more

It was a cold start — will the rest of this winter be the same?
As usual, the forecasts are varied but none predict a warmer-than-usual winter this year
Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s hard to believe we are into the last month of 2022. From a climatological point of view, we have finished the first full month of winter across the Prairies. For those who are more astronomical, we are halfway through the first full month of winter. No matter which way you view it, November across the […] Read more

Cattle producers ‘aligned’ with climate goals
Reading Time: < 1 minute The benefits from well-managed livestock systems got some recognition at the recent COP27 in Egypt, says Alberta cattle producer Bob Lowe, who attended the UN’s annual climate conference as an official observer. “Beef producers experience climate-related events firsthand and we work every day to continuously improve our working landscapes for generations to come,” Lowe said […] Read more

Soil moisture more critical than rainfall to estimate climate impact
Yields don’t always correspond to rainfall amounts, but researchers have solved that mystery
Reading Time: 2 minutes You don’t need a PhD in agriculture to know that water is critical to crop production. But for years, people like Jonathan Proctor have been trying to explain why the importance of water isn’t showing up in statistical models of crop yield. “Studies analyzing how crop yields respond to temperature and rainfall tend to find […] Read more

Winter unlikely to be a cure against drought
Reading Time: < 1 minute It’s not as bad as a year ago, but the moisture situation heading into winter wasn’t good either, the province said in its final Agricultural Moisture Situation Update of the season issued Oct. 25. A year ago, most of the province had moisture deficits that are only seen once every 25 to 50 years. Things […] Read more