Across the country, more than 7,700 daily temperature records were
broken last month, on the heels of the fourth warmest winter on record.
While
it might be time to lie on a blanket in the park, climate scientists
are worried. They say all these sunny days are actually an extreme
weather event, one with local and global implications.
In
Iowa, March was so hot — a record-breaking 84 degrees — that some crops
there, like oats, are now running way ahead of schedule.
Joe
Prusacki, a statistician with the Department of Agriculture, says this
time of year Iowa usually has just 7 percent of its oats planted.
“Right
now, they’re at 58 percent planted,” Prusacki says. “That’s because if
you plant the crop now, it’s going to germinate and grow.”
