2023 has been a year of weather extremes for farmers, and USDA Meteorologist, Brad Rippey, is pointing out a few of the hardest hitting events.
That list includes the California flooding. The event actually started at the tail end of 2022, but carried well into March of this year. Rippey shares more about the flooding caused by a series of climatic conditions called atmospheric rivers.
“That flooding included significant agricultural impacts, such as the return of Tulare Lake in the southern San Joaquin Valley, flooding over 100,000 acres of fertile agricultural land,” says Rippey. “The first reappearance of that former majestic lake since the 1997-98 wet season. That water actually some of it’s still in place even as we head into the winter of 2023-24.”
Rippey also notes the significant Northeastern cold wave as well as the mild winter for much of the nation as other weather highlights this year.
