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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Will Extreme Weather Become the Norm for Indiana's Farmers?

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Thursday, January 2, 2020   

INDIANAPOLIS - Hoosier farmers will not be surprised to hear that 2019 was one of the wettest on record, and some experts predict the impact of climate change on agriculture will only get worse.

Karin Gleason, a climate scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said all data indicate that extreme weather events such as last year's floods, along with periods of prolonged drought, are here to stay.

"There are certainly going to be costs associated with losses, or anticipated losses," she said. "There were some crops that didn't get planted until June. You have a shorter growing season that can put you at risk in the fall for early frosts or freezes."

Farmers in all of Indiana's 92 counties were eligible to apply for federal disaster assistance after excessive rain in 2019. In just the past 10 years, major flooding in the United States resulted in losses of at least $40 billion.

Gleason said extreme precipitation events are becoming heavier and more frequent. As global temperatures rise, she said, more water evaporates from the land and oceans, leading to stronger downpours which increase the likelihood of flooding.

Katrina Hall, director of public policy at the Indiana Farm Bureau, said farmers in the state are going to have to learn how to manage changes in weather more than they have had to in the past.

"But the good news is there's a lot of technology out there; it's just knowing how to be adaptive," she said. "I think it's an exciting time for ag to be creative and recognize that our weather and overall climate might be evolving and changing."

Gleason and her colleagues at NOAA are monitoring changes in weather patterns and are making their data available for farmers. She said looking back at historical rainfall averages, days of drought and how those averages are changing can help farmers adjust their strategies and adapt, "and to understand, 'Do I need to anticipate in the future changing up my practices? Do I want to pick a different kind of crop? Will that yield a better harvest? Will that yield a better bottom line?' "

Gleason said the easiest way to tap NOAA's climate data is through its interactive tool, Climate at a Glance, which can be found online at ncdc.noaa.gov.


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