#seasonal-impacts

#seasonal-impacts

The conservation authority listed the water level at 219.4 metres Friday, which is 31 centimetres higher than normal for this time of year. Higher than average water levels in Lake Simcoe are causing worry amongst farmers in Ontario's 'salad bowl' region, which is a major vegetable producer in the province.

The sound of rain spurs rice seeds to sprout up to 40 percent faster than they would otherwise, according to a study published today in Scientific Reports.

Even though the evidence is still early, this could be a very significant event in 2026 and lingering into 2027. Its function in the global earth system is to release heat from the deeper oceans that has been temporarily stored there. El Nino allows that subducted heat to be unearthed.

It's turned into an unusually dry winter for Northern California, and that pattern, thanks to a ridge of high pressure, is going to continue for at least the first 10 days of February. As the Chronicle meteorology team tells us, the dry and balmy conditions will be with us through Super Bowl Weekend and beyond, continuing a pattern that has left the Sierra snowpack mighty low.

While cold-stunned iguanas fall from trees in Florida and videos circulate of frozen "exploding" trees in the Northeast, Southern California is working up a sweat. A midwinter heat wave has descended on much of the state and is expected to spike temperatures as much as 20 degrees above normal in the coming week. The summer-like heat is thanks to a ridge of high pressure lingering high in the atmosphere that extends through the San Francisco Bay Area and into the Pacific Northwest.

Climate breakdown is occurring more rapidly with the heating rate almost doubling, according to research that excludes the effect of natural factors behind the latest scorching temperatures. It found global heating accelerated from a steady rate of less than 0.2C per decade between 1970 and 2015 to about 0.35C per decade over the past 10 years.

The question of how to protect fish and the ecological health of rivers that feed California's largest estuary is generating heated debate in a series of hearings in Sacramento, as state officials try to gain support for a plan that has been years in the making. "I am passionate that this is the pathway to recover fish," said state Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot. "This is the paradigm we need: collaborative, adaptive management versus conflict and litigation."