Climate past, climate future

Reducing your risk on the farm and being resilient to a higher frequency of extreme weather events is getting harder. Our climate is rapidly changing and in the coming decades is expected to bring on more drought, floods, heat waves and higher nighttime temperatures. Farmers have to find ways to be prepared.

Martha Shulski is the Nebraska State Climatologist. She stresses that handling our climate future will be different than our climate past.

"And so the strategies that worked in 2012, in 88, or you can pick a flood year pick a drought year, that's going to be amplified and magnified and we are entering into a space where it's unprecedented, it's unlike what we've experienced in the past," says Shulski. "Therefore, how you dealt with these extreme events or these rates of change, that's different going forward. You're going to a place where we haven't been."

Seasons vary from year to year, but the growing season in the central U.S is expected to expand by 30 days. In addition to that, she says we will have a wetter climate overall, which isn't ideal for ag.

"Generally wetter winter and spring, drier in summer and wetter in fall. So, it shifts a bit in the seasonality of that precipitation," she says. "One of the things I tell folks when I'm out giving talks in Nebraska and elsewhere is planning for an overall wetter climate that's going to be punctuated by droughts."

So, what can you do to reduce your weather risks? Shulski recommends finding resources and tools that can help you make farming decisions based on climate predictions and information for your area.