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Hunter Cutting

New weather patterns threaten U.S. breadbasket - 0 views

www.ipsnews.net/news.asp

climate change impact USA agriculture Midwest temperature humidity flooding extreme weather heavy precipitation events frost_free_days

shared by Hunter Cutting on 24 Jul 10 - Cached
  • New Weather Patterns Threaten U.S. Breadbasket
  • The Midwest climate has already become wetter and warmer, said Gene Takle, an atmospheric scientist at Iowa State University.
  • One of Takle's studies used Iowa's experience to show the stress already showing up in the Midwest states, which are major food exporters to other countries as well. For example, precipitation has risen gradually in Iowa over the past century, but can vary widely from year to year. Springs now are wetter, and autumns drier. That can make corn-planting difficult, but dry the grain more quickly in the fall. Records show a rise in absolute humidity, threatening crops with a higher risk of disease and harmful fungi.
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  • "Climate change is happening at a much greater and accelerated pace than we ever expected 30 years ago," said Richard Leopold, director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Huge floods in 2008, which left the state's second-biggest city, Cedar Rapids, with massive downtown destruction, intensified the debate, with a new set of recommendations coming from a state panel by the end of the year. "If we decide as a state to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a hurry, we can actually do it," said Sen. Rob Hogg, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids. "There are a lot of things we can do for no cost, and others we can do for very little cost."
  • Summer storms already can be more intense, and the Midwest has fought to avoid major flooding this year.
  • The records Takle analysed showed Iowa averages five more frost-free days a year than in 1950. But that doesn't mean more time to grow crops, because of changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. Generally, Iowa now has warmer winters, but fewer extremely hot summer days. Overall, the Midwest is expected to warm through the middle of the century, but not as much as other parts of the country.
Hunter Cutting

Record rains in June for Iowa and Nebraska - 0 views

www.omaha.com/...707019849

climate change impact USA flooding extreme weather heavy rains Midwest Iowa Nebraska precipitation

shared by Hunter Cutting on 24 Jul 10 - Cached
  • The nation’s heaviest rains in June poured down on Nebraska and Iowa. Records were set across both states.Iowa recorded its rainiest June in 138 years and its second-rainiest month ever, exceeded only by the rainfall of July 1993, which led to that year’s “Great Flood.”Northeastern Nebraska saw the state’s heaviest rains, with some areas recording three times the normal amount. Some places got nearly 17 inches.Near Ericson — where nearly 13 inches fell — a dam burst, draining a popular fishing lake.
Hunter Cutting

Families sailing through ice-free Northwest passage - 0 views

www.desmoinesregister.com/...areness-about-health-of-oceans

climate change impact Arctic sea ice Arctic sailing Northwest Passage

shared by Hunter Cutting on 07 Jul 10 - Cached
  • David Thoreson has sailed to the ends of the Earth and now carries a message, as if gathered from sea winds.The 50-year-old Iowan and the crew of the 64-foot cutter Ocean Watch finished an epic 382-day journey of 27,524 nautical miles around the Americas on June 17, ending on the very dock they started last May in Seattle.
  • On his first attempt to sail through the Northwest Passage in 1994, he was stopped cold by ice; his second trip in 2007 was a rare success. This time, Ocean Watch was among a circus of boats ripping through, the ice a victim of a warming climate, he said."A sure sign that change is afoot was seeing standard-production sailboats with families going through the Northwest Passage."
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