Abstract
The United States has sustained over 90 weather-related disasters in the past 30 years in which overall damages exceeded $1 billion. The total normalized losses for the 90-plus events exceeded $700 billion. Droughts, floods, hurricanes, severe storms, heat waves, freezes, and wildfires pose serious challenges for farmers and the agribusiness community. Socio-economic costs of some of these natural disasters are far-reaching and long-lasting. The enduring changes in climate, water supply, and soil moisture necessitate mitigation measures and adaptation strategies to cope with these changes in order to develop effective long-term risk management plans. The preparedness strategies should include alternatives to current agricultural management schemes in certain regions.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Easterling DR, Evans JL, Groisman PYa, Karl TR, Kunkel KE, Ambenje P (2000) Observed variability and trends in extreme climate events: a brief review. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 81:417–425
FEMA (1995) National mitigation strategy. Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC
Karl TR, Knight RW, Easterling DR, Quayle RC (1995) Trends in U.S. climate during the twentieth century. Consequences – the nature and implications of environmental change. Symp US Global Change Res Inform Office 1(1/Spring):3–12
Kucharik CJ, Ramankutty N (2005) Trends and variability in US corn yields over the twentieth century. Earth Interact 9(1):1–29
Lott N, Ross T, Houston T, Smith A, Shein K (2008) NOAA, National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). Billion dollar weather disasters 1980–2008. Available online at: http://222.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/reports/billionz.html
Naylor R, Falcon W, Zavaleta E (1997) Variability and growth in grain yields, 1950–94: does the record point ot greater instability? Popul Dev Rev 23(1):41–58
NRCS (2008) Snow surveys and water supply forecasting: agricultural information bulletin 536, National Resources Conservation Service, USDA
Reilly J, Tubiello F, McCarl B, Abler D, Darwin R, Fuglie K, Hollinger S, Izaurralde C, Jagtap S, Jones J, Learns L, Ojima D, Paul E, Paustian K, Riha S, Rosenberg N, Rosenzweig C (2003) US agriculture and climate change: new results. Clim Change 57:43–69
Riebau AR, Fox DG (2005) Damage assessment of agrometeorological relevance from natural disaster: economic and social consequences. In: Sivakumar MVK, Motha RP, Das HP (eds) Natural disasters and extreme events in agriculture-impacts and mitigation. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 119–136
Rosenzweig C, Iglesias A, Yang XB, Epstein PR, Chivian E (2001) Climate change and extreme weather events – implications for food production, plant diseases, and pests. Glob Change Hum Health 2(2):90–104
Scheraga JD, Grambsch AE (1998) Risks, opportunities, and adaptation to climate change. Clim Res 10:85–95
Wilhite DA, Svoboda MD, Hayes MJ (2005) Monitoring drought in the United States: status and trends. In: Boker VK, Cracknell AP, Heathcoe RL (eds) Monitoring and predicting agricultural drought – a global study. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 121–131
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Motha, R.P. (2011). The Impact of Extreme Weather Events on Agriculture in the United States. In: Attri, S., Rathore, L., Sivakumar, M., Dash, S. (eds) Challenges and Opportunities in Agrometeorology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19360-6_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19360-6_30
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-19359-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-19360-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)