Americans Have Planted So Much Corn That It's Changing the Weather

[jxla]

Last edited Fri Dec 27, 2019, 11:48 AM - Edit history (2)

I didn't notice until after I posted, that this article was from 2018 - just that it involved Nebraska. I got it from one of those emails that WIRED sends with links to their stories.

https://www.wired.com/story/corn-fields-are-making-it-rain-more/
This story originally appeared on Atlas Obscura and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/corn-belt-weather

Americans Have Planted So Much Corn That It's Changing the Weather

The Corn Belt is making it rain.

BY ERIC J. WALLACE
DECEMBER 3, 2018

CORN FARMERS IN EASTERN NEBRASKA have long claimed weather patterns are changing, but in an unexpected way.

“It’s something I’ve talked about with my dad and grandad many times,” says fifth-generation corn farmer Brandon Hunnicutt. Along with his father and brother, the 45-year-old lives in the 400-person village of Giltner and grows about 2,000 acres of corn each year. From above, the area looks like a blip of homes surrounded by an expansive grid of circular fields. Though Brandon’s grandfather is retired, he takes an active interest in the business. “Contrary to what you’d think should be happening, both him and my dad swear up and down [that] droughts used to come more often and be a lot worse,” says Hunnicutt. “Considering it’s been 30 years since we had a really bad one, I’ve started kind of taking them at their word.”

[DanieRains]

1. Check Out Gaviotas In Colombia

They planted so many trees they changed the weather.

[NotHardly]

3. You might want to check our Australia for weather

[RockRaven]

2. And yet no amount of corn planted elsewhere will save any of these farmers when temperature

starts "trumping" drought... i.e. when dryness (at the wrong time) dominates precipitation (at the wrong -- or is it right for purposes of drought-discussion? -- time).


And that moment has already arrived. I more than half-wonder if this story published in this news outlet is not provoked/prodded/planted by climate-denial-industry types -- consider that a week or so ago there were a rash of articles (including those reposted on DU) about how higher temps in the corn belt during planting/growing season would mean less moisture in the soil in those regions, meaning bad yields...

and a week or two later we now get articles about how there is totes lots of rain because of all the corn being planted...


One cannot expect this to be a golly-gee-whiz-coincidence, right?