March 2016 newsletter and Spring Tides

We hope that everyone has been enjoying their spring. A few weeks ago we released our March 2016 Condition Monitoring newsletter with some exciting updates about the condition monitoring project. You can check out a copy of the newsletter here if you did not already receive it.

Perigean-spring tides were also predicted this past weekend, and many coastal areas were expected to experience King Tides, or extremely high tides that often occur during perigean spring tides due to the additional gravitational pull of the moon and sun's alignment with the earth. If you saw King Tides in your area, be sure to send your photos to us at cisa@sc.edu.

South Carolina farmers struggle after crop damage from extreme weather events in 2015

An article published in The State newspaper on March 7th, 2016 describes the challenges farmers in South Carolina faced as a result of drought, flood, and heavy precipitation events in 2015 that impacted crops. According to the S.C. Department of Agriculture, the agriculture industry incurred $587 million in damages in 2015, resulting from losses in soybean, cotton, and peanut crops. Many farmers worry about compounding losses and debt in 2016 due to falling commodity prices and more unanticipated extreme events, especially if federal and state aid do not come through to supplement crop disaster aid from crop insurance.

Damaged peanut crop - photo from The State

February 2016 monthly newsletter now available!

We hope that you have been enjoying the last few weeks of winter. For a recap about winter weather in December and January as well as condition monitoring project updates, be sure to check out the February 2016 Condition Monitoring Newsletter here. We also share some condition monitoring tips and photos from CoCoRaHS observer Melinda Ball in this newsletter, who we selected as observer of the month.

Winter weather reminders

The National Weather Service (NWS) forecasts a severe winter storm to affect many parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast over the next few days. While most of the snow will likely occur farther north, they forecast icy rain in North Carolina and in the northern parts of South Carolina and Georgia. All NWS alerts can be searched by county on their website, which is updated regularly. The severity of the conditions in your area will be reflected in the statement issued by the NWS for where you live. Additional information explaining the different types of winter weather alerts can be found here.

Be sure to check out the CoCoRaHS training page for a refresher on how to measure winter precipitation with your rain gauge. Also, if you take any photos, be sure to send them to us at cisa@sc.edu so we can highlight them in our next newsletter.

How does your winter solstice weather compare to previous years?

Every year, the winter solstice marks the longest night of the year and the shortest day, and it also marks the official start of winter. This year the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere occurs on December 21, 11:48 P.M. EST.

No two winters are exactly the same. According to the State Climate Office of North Carolina's Holiday Climatology for the Southeast, the following extremes on the winter solstice have been documented:

North Carolina

• Warmest Winter Solstice occurred on December 22, 1931 at Elizabeth City (312719)
• Max Temp: 76°F
• Min Temp: 70°F
• Coldest Winter Solstice occurred on December 22, 1935 at Mt Mitchell (315921)
• Max Temp: 15°F
• Min Temp: -9°F
• Highest Precipitation Amount: 4.12 inches on December 22, 1918 at Highlands (314055)

 South Carolina

• Warmest Winter Solstice occurred on December 22, 1926 at Georgetown 2 E (383468)
• Max Temp: 82°F
• Min Temp: 60°F
• Coldest Winter Solstice occurred on December 21, 1985 at Caesars Head (381256)
• Max Temp: 27°F
• Min Temp: 10°F
• Highest Precipitation Amount: 3.01 inches on December 22, 1918 at Centenary (381495)

The Holiday Climatology page also provides the warmest, coldest, and wettest winter solstices documented at each weather station in North and South Carolina. Let us know how your temperature and precipitation measurements for the winter solstice compare to the records documented at weather station closest to your home in the comments below or in your weekly condition monitoring report.

Just released: November 2015 Condition Monitoring Newsletter

We hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving last week! This month's newsletter, which was released today, has a link in the introduction that you can use to see what previous Thanksgiving conditions looked like in your state.  The November newsletter focuses on citizen science, including an article about how Rebecca Cumbie-Ward at the State Climate Office of North Carolina uses condition monitoring reports and another piece on the White House Initiatives on citizen science and crowdsourcing. We also interview Pat Momich, who is our condition monitoring observer of the month, to hear what motivates her to be a CoCoRaHS observer and tips for successful monitoring.

Check out the newsletter here. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us at cisa@sc.edu.

Recap from October CoCoRaHS observer call

On October 29, 2015, we had a observer conference call with 7 CoCoRaHS condition monitoring volunteers, and detailed observer call notes can be found here. During the first part of the call, we discussed local impacts caused by heavy precipitation and flooding as well as non-weather sources, such as a local timber operation. Many of the observers shared that they do include impacts from heavy precipitation and flooding events in their reports, if observed. Some observers also had questions about how to report how logging operations and other human activities that alter local conditions. In response, CISA team members suggested to include this type of information in condition monitoring reports even though CoCoRaHS does not have a section to note human-caused land-use change, especially since this type of impact information would provide additional context to how weather conditions affects local areas.

During the second part of the conference call, CISA team member David Eckhardt asked observers for feedback on incorporating a scale bar into the CoCoRaHS reporting form. In addition to providing positive feedback about the prototype scale bar and guidance information that David created, observers also provided useful suggestions on how to improve the overall CoCoRaHS drought impact reporting form. For example, many observers agreed that having comment boxes next to each category would be useful in addition to the general comment box.

For those of you who were not able to make the call, but are interested in sharing your thoughts on a few proposed changes to the condition monitoring report form, please take a moment to complete this very brief survey to let us know what you think about the idea.

Additionally, anyone who is interested in participating in a usability study to test out the scale bar before it goes live, please enter your contact information in the space available on the survey OR e-mail cisa@sc.edu.