Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/category/climate/page/17/)
This includes climate change and stories about extreme weather. The main menu further divides this category with tags for drought and cold.
The drought of 2012 will affect Christmas tree farmers in the Great Lakes eight to nine years from now.
That’s because the dry landscape was bad for planting new trees.
Michigan ranks only behind Oregon and North Carolina in the national tree market.
Michigan’s chestnut growers are facing the same problems other fruit growers confront this year.
The early surge of temperatures in March and the inevitable cold weather in April and May curtailed nut production, just as it did for apples and cherries.
Despite recent rains, the 2012 drought – the most destructive in 50 years – has driven many Michigan dairy farmers into “survival mode”.
The dry weather reduced crop yields, tightening the feed supply.
Wildlife is on the move in Michigan with species like black bears moving increasingly south.
The threat from a metallic green beetle is quickly spreading throughout the ash trees of the Great Lakes region.
It’s so bad that federal officials have stopped spending money on surveys for the invasive beetle.
As apple growers statewide struggle to make up for losses, experts say the ramifications of one of the toughest crop years ever could continue to harm the industry. One worry: Will seasonal workers return to Michigan?
A Wisconsin forest was among the test sites where scientists found that warming temperatures will more rapidly release carbon dioxide stored in soils.
Such an increase of the greenhouse gas could make the climate heat even faster.
A mild winter left Lake Erie nearly ice-free. On the first day of spring last week, a NASA satellite snapped a picture of the southern Great Lakes region and showed sediment clouding up the shallow lake. The colors in the image are accurate. The tan colored-water swirling around the shoreline is sediment rushing in from streams and rivers. The warm winter brought more rainfall than snow, so there was increased runoff.
It’s been a weird winter for Michiganders used to a lot of snow, ice and cold.
The mild winter has been a money-saver for some and business as usual for others.
Michigan’s mild winter could mean more deer in the Upper Peninsula this year. Experts say unusually warm weather could make more food sources available.