Cornfields May Affect Weather Patterns

Theories Say Crop Adds Moisture To Air, Might Boost Thunderstorms

(AP)  Having a sweaty summer? It could be the corn.

Climatologists are building evidence that crops, particularly corn, are driving up dew points as they put water into the atmosphere through evaporation. They also may make corn-growing areas cooler and alter rain patterns.

Some say the extra moisture could even add energy to thunderstorms, with one study arguing that a 2001 tornado in Benson got a power boost from corn evaporation.

"I think there's a new realization that there is a two-way interaction between weather and agriculture," said Richard Raddatz, a climatologist at the University of Winnipeg, who has studied the transformation of the Canadian prairies from grassland to cropland.

In some ways, researchers are taking a second look at a 19th century adage - "rain follows the plow." Popularized by Charles Dana Wilber in an 1881 book touting the agricultural promise of Nebraska, the phrase supported a grand notion that the western Great Plains, which in the early 19th century had been labeled the "Great American Desert," could be transformed into a garden if people would expose its moist soil to the atmosphere.

Rainy years added credibility to the idea, but it was discredited as pseudo-science after homesteaders who flooded the plains were trapped by drought and bankruptcy.

Raddatz, however, said there is a growing body of research indicating that contemporary crops do indeed change the way water, heat and energy interact with the atmosphere.

By "transpiring" more heavily than the prairie grasses that preceded them, and in relatively short periods, crops can generate air movements that can lead to storms, and intensify the season during which water is cycled through the atmosphere.

Raddatz published a summary of studies of cropping and weather in February in the journal Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. They add some oomph to a 2002 study of dew points by Northern Illinois University climatologist David Changnon, which pinned a 40-year trend toward higher dew points in the Midwest, and record-high dew points during recent heat waves, on changes in farming.

Other experts are skeptical.

Assistant Minnesota state climatologist Pete Boulay points out that in the Twin Cities, average dew points - a measure of water saturation in the air - during three of the past four summers have been below average. And much of the corn-rowed state is now in its second consecutive season of very dry conditions.

But Boulay does believe that a broadly irrigated landscape on the University of Minnesota St. Paul campus has contributed to dew points there that are higher than those at broadly paved Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport.

Peter Robinson, director of the Southeast Regional Climate Center in North Carolina, has studied dew-point trends nationally and found mixed results, including an upward nudge in corn-growing areas. But he said he is only "suspicious the two are related."

University of Oklahoma climatologist Jeff Basara, who has spent most of his summers in Minnesota, traces a link between corn evaporation and an F2 tornado that injured seven people in Benson on June 11, 2001.

"There was going to be severe weather that day. But evaporation added enough moisture to the atmosphere and turned it from a day of localized severe weather reports to a day that really was a headline-maker," said Basara, who published his research in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society in 2005.

Changnon, the Illinois researcher, found that since 1950, crops had replaced thousands of square miles of pastureland during the era of rising dew points. More significant, he said, was the shift in corn-planting from 40-inch rows to 30-inch rows.

"We're just pouring more water into the air," Changnon said.

Changnon said the results of his study shouldn't demonize agriculture but should prompt urban areas to be alert to the public health threat dew points in the 70s or higher can bring.

[cmp271]

Sounds like a Stephen King plot for a new Novel. Instead of the "Corn People" it is now the "corny weather people"!!!

[cosmicfluke]

Another total spin story from CBS, singing the praises of uni-cropping, the most destructive agricultural practice we use.

Where does that water the corn puts in the atmosphere come from? The Colorado River.

10 to 1 Monsanto sponsored this study.

[blackbug99]

"Take the Tesla roadster for example. It equates to around 200mpg, goes 0-60 as fast as a modern gas-guzzling sports car, and costs only 1 cent to charge. What's keeping it down?" - Posted by darkfyreaol

How about that it's based on a Lotus sports car that the majority of fuel users in the US can't afford and can't use. Make a US version of a "Volkswagen" (Peoples car) and then tell me they wont beat a path to the door.

[weareone2]

This is about short-term results. What about long-term results?
According to this, the increased air moisture and rain come from the corn putting more soil moisture into the air. So there would not be an increase in soil moisture in the area. If anything, I would think there would be less, because some of the moister air would end up elsewhere. Conceivably, it might cause wind movements that could bring in moist air from elsewhere, I don't know.

I would think this effect would be likely to lead to more drought and desertification in the long run, like when the prairies where farmed and turned in a dust bowl.

[darkfyreaol]

There is no 'clean fuel', actually. Unless you count hydrogen, which produces only heat and water vapor. Which could cause havoc with ecosystems everywhere.

Maybe the sole 'clean' option lies in electric cars fueled by power plants that run off of renewable resources such as hydro power, wind, and sunlight. Take the Tesla roadster for example. It equates to around 200mpg, goes 0-60 as fast as a modern gas-guzzling sports car, and costs only 1 cent to charge. What's keeping it down? The big oil companies and the auto makers that rely on them.

[darkfyreaol]

Wow, we just solved the problem of desertification. Plant corn, water. Wait a hundred years. Move on, repeat. At this rate, we can transform the Sahara into a giant prairie in a thousand years or so. Where would all the water in the icecaps go..? Into a worldwide cornfield, of course. Blue planet indeed.

[Syndicate]

MarkS7177 : Free Energy--- Mrsolar.com

[infidel_us]

What's this going to do to the price of tortillas????

Sincerely,
Speedy Gonzales

[extremophil]

You've got to be kidding. Let's all bury some chicken bones and do a dance by the light of the full moon.

[usawarrior]

"The sky is falling."

[ralan40]

MarkS7177, I always interpreted Adam Smith as stating that economic power trumps political power. I do not believe technology can be supressed too much nowdays. Human nature (greed) prevents companies from withholding anything that would give them a clear competative advantage over all others, even in the short term.

The Government clipped the Railroads' power when it created the interstate hyway system in the 1950s It is the interstate system that has indirectly led to Americans' reliance on cars/oil industry. I certainly wouldn't blame the current administration for an issue that has existed and evolved over several decades. You think a Democrat president would turn around climate change with the ease that they've turned around this Iraqi situation for us??

[slim1h2o]

I think I've heard everything now.
Posted by mike71067 at 09:16 AM : Jul 23, 2007

Oh no we haven't. Just wait till tomorrow for the next screwball theory, always seems to happen that way. I see all the so called experts flip flopping as I/we speak Lmao

[mike71067]

The silly liberals, besides being mentally insane, now have a paradox - how do they promote "clean fuels" to stop Bush's global warming when ethanol comes from corn and corn is causing tornadoes?

I think I've heard everything now.

[mitywhity]

I thought corn was the liberal's "untouchable" now. Since they believe methanol is the answer to our petro and ecological concerns, why would they allow such a derogatory story to interrupt the constant corn-push? Once you understand the liberal mind you will be able to figure it out. They want to introduce some controls and financial disincentives to constrict capitalism and give their environmetalist groups the edge to pound them into submission. Liberals do not believe in the free-market, capitalism or the freedom of ideas. To them corn is the next enemy.

[monkfellow]

It's all true! I saw it on the left of center blog!
We all know farmers are mostly Republicans..and Karl Rove had a conference call with all of them this year and ordered them to grow more corn in rows that would lead to more erosion,so that Democrats would be flooded out of their homes. Halliburton would tear down the city homes and replace them with old FEMA trailers, managed by the Freemasons.
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tuckerndfw]

From the story:

"I think there's a new realization that there is a two-way interaction between weather and agriculture," said Richard Raddatz, a climatologist. . . "

Really?

You mean weather isn't magically creaeted?

There should be no doubt that weather is influenced by everything, including breathing. The question isn't "if," the question is "how much."

I hope these "researchers" aren't seriously claiming they just now realized weather is influenced by every known variable throughout the universe, especially activities on the earth and in our solar system.

[octavianfdlr]

What a namaizing discovery: rain (or irrigation) and the raising of crops are correlated! But which causes which?

Decades ago, the Soviet Union tried to increase rainfall by planting trees. It didn't work. Now, once again, we hear of allegations that we humans can affect the climate: we can effect rain, high temperatures, drought, low temperatures, etc.

Don't believe it.

[glaswolf]

I would like to see more detail on the rates at which the corn referenced water vapor rises in the atmosphere. My sense is that water vapor drifts east or west as it rises so that its effect on cloud formation could be hundreds of miles away from catalytic evaporation's source...if not thousands. Irrigation using springler systems, for example, inject water vapors into the atmosphere problably more so than corn fields...just because of aerosol effects. Are there comparative studies showing large springler irrigated regions have proportionally increased rain? Is fresh water evaporation at the Artic causing the current downpours in Europe?

[mike71067]

Liberals never cease to amaze me. Now corn is impacting the weather. Bush causes hurricanes and global warming, and now corn causes thunderstorms.

NOTE: The liberal Democrats have raised $100 million in campaign cash more than Republicans so far. This should cause the average American some degree of concern...

[omnibus66]

Cornfields cause tornados! Run, the sky is falling. Several years ago they told us that cows farting caused ozone depletion. What a bunch of nuts. And you can bet that tax dollars are paying for this nonsense.