As climate continues to change, scientific studies have warned for decades that intensity and frequency of high-end rain events will continue to increase. Collard greens are also grown in California, which experienced significant challenges from Santa Ana wind-driven fires.
Flooding and field inundation in Texas and the southeastern United States reduced crop yields and forced farmers to harvest early. You can clearly seen the impacts of the 2018 wet weather pattern and the influence of Hurricanes Florence and Hurricane Michael, respectively. Many of the places in blue (very wet) on that map are places that grow collard greens.
The colors represents the wetness percentile NASA and Marshall Shepherd The data was collected from various satellite and meteorological data and shows "the amount of shallow groundwater on December 17, 2018, ranks among all the Decembers from 1948 to 2012," according to NASA Earth Observatory website. The website goes on to point out, The map above illustrates wetness conditions. The eastern United States has been particularly wet this season. Rawls, were impacted by weather disasters this year. Collards are a cool-season vegetable high in antioxidants, calcium and other vitamins.Īn article published in The Produce News recently noted that leading U.S. Greens were one of the few select vegetables enslaved African Americans were allowed to harvest for themselves according to the Latibah Collard Green Museum. Collard Greens are a staple of southern dishes and are of particular importance to the African-American community. They are grown in the United States, Brazil, Portugal, Kashmir, and many parts of African. The habit of eating greens that have been cooked down into a low gravy and drinking the juices from the greens (known as “pot likker”) is of African origin. Though greens did not originate in Africa but originated in the eastern Mediterranean, it wasn’t until the first Africans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in the early 1600s that America got its first taste of the dark green, leafy vegetable. Collards are also known as tree cabbage or non-heading cabbage. According to the Latibah Collard Green Museum website,Ĭollard greens date back to prehistoric times, and are one of the oldest members of the cabbage family. If you are not familiar with collard greens (and if you are from the South like I am I find that hard to believe), they are a leafy plant closely related to common vegetable species such as cabbage, kale, spinach, turnip greens and spring greens. Economic losses (so far) are around $18 billion dollars. In a previous Forbes piece, I documented the multi-billion dollar hit the Georgia economy took because of agricultural losses to the pecan, peanut, cotton, and fryer sectors. You probably don't think about these secondary impacts of extreme weather events until higher groceries or clothing prices are noticed weeks to months later. These storms ravaged the southeastern United States with flooding, storm surge, and wind dame. The 2018 Atlantic hurricane season will likely produce at least two retired names, Michael and Florence. The public generally seems to understand obvious ways like a cookout being rained out, air travel implications, and the devastation of a tornado in a subdivision. As meteorologist and atmospheric sciences professor, I am constantly trying to convey to the average person how weather and climate affects their lives.