Seed Producers Learn About Climate Variability

The Alabama and Georgia Seed Associations held their joint 2015 Annual Meeting in Destin, FL on July 12th and 13th.  The membership consists of over 700 companies involved in seed production and distribution, plant breeding, and other related industries in North America. State Climatologist David Zierden presented at the general session on El Niņo and climate variability. His talk focused on the strengthening El Niņo in the Pacific and what it means for climate and weather through the end of 2015.  The talk was well received as seed producers were very interested in predicted climate around harvest time this year.

Special Article: 2014 State of the Climate Report Released

In the middle of July, the State of the Climate in 2014 report was released online by the American Meteorological Society (AMS). The report, compiled by NOAA's Center for Weather and Climate at the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) is based on contributions from 413 scientists from 58 countries around the world. Key findings in the report state that the most essential indicators of Earth's changing climate continued to reflect trends of a warming planet, with several markers such as rising land and ocean temperature, sea levels and greenhouse gases setting new records. It provides a detailed update on global climate indicators, notable weather events, and other data collected by environmental monitoring stations and instruments located on land, water, ice, and in space.