00:00Today we'll focus on climate change's impact on crops, including wine.
00:05We'll start, though, with hail, Brett.
00:07A study from the University of New South Wales looks at hail and how it damages crops
00:12and how that area of damage in terms of the geography of it may be shifting across the world due
00:17to climate change.
00:18Yeah, this is a worldwide study, so we're looking at places such as Australia, New Zealand, North America.
00:23So with a warming planet, we're seeing increased risk for damaging hail in cooler locations, such as Canada,
00:32also during cooler times of the year, decreasing risk during warmer months, which is interesting.
00:37So obviously hail is an important factor in crop damage.
00:42When hail happens, when it's large hail, it can damage crops.
00:45It shreds wheat. It flattens corn.
00:47It's very bad for agricultural interests that get hit by hailstorms.
00:50And I guess talk a bit about the reasoning behind this or what the study found with why or how
00:56climate change will impact hail.
00:57Yeah, so with a warmer atmosphere, we get more updrafts with thunderstorms, more hail.
01:02However, on the other hand, with a warmer atmosphere, Dan, this raises the level, the freezing level.
01:07So with the freezing level higher, hail has more time to melt into droplets of rain.
01:12So those two kind of counteract each other.
01:15However, stronger storms are expected to see stronger thunderstorms with a warming planet.
01:19Thus, larger hailstorms get thrown up even higher into the atmosphere.
01:24And larger hailstones equals more damage.
01:27There might be less of those events, but when they do occur, they could be very significant with large impacts.
01:32Yes, and again, the biggest risk now is to winter crops, such as wheat.
01:37So winter crops and more study and detail is needed in this particular area.
01:41Our next is from ABC News, and this looks at wine and grape growing, Brett, and how there's been a
01:47significant impact on grapes across the world, lower yield, and potentially a significant reduction in where grapes can be grown
01:54to produce wine.
01:55Yeah, so the increased heat with climate change alters the chemistry of grapes, thus the taste, as a lot of
02:01these grapes are ripening too quickly, and that causes some taste problems, of course.
02:07We certainly don't want taste problems with wine.
02:09No, we don't.
02:09But it seems like there's been a lot of work done in the community here about what can be done
02:14to solve this problem.
02:16Yeah, it's different depending where you are.
02:18Let's say in North America, in the Pacific Northwest, they're planting oak trees near grape vineyards.
02:24And supposedly the root system with the oak trees working with the grapes increases the grape yield there.
02:32In California, they've had issues with smoke taint from all these wildfires.
02:37Thus, what they're doing now is increasing native cover crops around the plants there to cool the soil.
02:44So certainly a lot of mitigation strategies.
02:46There's also been exploration of hybrid cold climate grapes.
02:50So it seems like they've got the adaptation area sort of managed here as best as they can.
02:55That is the key. Adaptation.
02:57Always the key.
02:58Certainly. I, for one, am glad to see that in the wine community.
03:01I don't drink.
03:03Thank you, Brett, for that insight.
03:05Other stories about climate, you may find those at accuweather.com slash climate.
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