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8 CapitalPress.com January 26, 2018 Popular weatherman keeps an eye on sunspots Douglas forecasts wet, cold winter By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press Farmers who attend Art Douglas’ weather forecast at the Spokane Ag Expo usually get more than just a glimpse of the coming weather picture. They also get to know more about the impacts of sunspots. Sunspots are explosions in the interior of the sun, creating excess energy that heads across the solar sys- tem and toward earth, said Douglas, a professor emer- itus at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., and a pop- Capital Press File Meteorologist Art Douglas will offer his annual weather outlook during this year’s Spokane Ag Expo and Northwest Farm Forum. ular speaker at the Spokane Ag Expo for 30 years, Gravitational forces within the sun go through ROTATE CROPS FOR PROFIT an 11-year sunspot cycle of convection, redistributing energy. Douglas said the cy- cle is “plunging” into a sun- spot minimum. “It would be a method by which Mother Nature will try to counteract the influ- ence of increased CO2 and how CO2 has been warm- ing the planet,” Douglas said. CO2 is carbon diox- ide, a so-called greenhouse gas that traps heat from the sun. A sudden, strong sunspot eruption would send more energy toward the earth, causing the stratosphere to heat up and form a ridge over Greenland, forcing a polar jetstream across the U.S. That usually means strong cold outbreaks and cold winters when that hap- pens, Douglas said. “It’s something we’re al- ways on guard for the next two to four years,” he said. The year 2017 was “up and down” for development of La Niña and El Niño, Douglas said. El Niño and La Niña are the warm and cool phases of the recurring climate across the tropical Pacific Ocean. El Niño fa- vors warm and dry condi- tions in the Pacific North- west; La Niña favors cool, wet conditions. Last year started with a La Niña, but a weak El Niño formed from April through August, before returning to a moderate La Niña. U.S. and European weather models indicate the La Niña will peak in Janu- ary and be gone by June. Normally La Niñas last one or more years. A water pool at the In- ternational Dateline is likely the warmest or sec- ond-warmest since the 1950s, Douglas said. A high-pressure ridge in the Central Pacific will send a jetstream across the Gulf of Alaska and skim the Cana- dian border from Washing- ton state to the Great Lakes. That pattern is favorable for more precipitation in the Pacific Northwest. “There will be periods when the jets will plunge farther south and arctic air will be able to get down into the Pacific Northwest,” Douglas said. He called for normal to above-normal precipitation through April and peaking in March. Precipitation will be normal or below normal by May. Douglas also predicted below-normal temperatures in mid- to late winter and early spring. In the long term, the West Coast is entering a warm phase associated with a drier Pacific Northwest, Douglas predicted. CANOLA Roundup Ready :: Clearfield :: Conventional 2018 Pacific Northwest Farm Forum Bronze Sponsors SUNFLOWERS :: SAFFLOWER CAMELINA :: TRITICALE Spectrum Crop :: Development Ritzville, WA Building Healthy Soils Enjoy domestic marketing opportunities and try out alternate crops. Curtis 509-659-1757 Todd 509-641-0436 SPAE18-1/101 Increase your wheat yields, break disease cycles and reduce weeds with spring and winter crop rotations Syngenta Banner Bank Hatley/Cobb Farmland Real Estate LLC Columbia Grain Inc. INB CO–Energy, A Connell Oil Incorporated Company L7 Trading, LLC The McGregor Company Pomeroy Grain Growers Inc. Washington Wheat Foundation Global Harvest Foods LTD Port of Whitman County Whitgro Inc. Great Western Malting Com- pany Rain and Hail LLC, Northwest Division Wilbur-Ellis Company Inland Power & Light State Bank Northwest Winston & Cashatt, Lawyers Allianz The Haskins Company COMPOST: • Adds valuable organic matter • Improves soil structure • Increases water penetration and holding capacity • Stabilizes pH and helps store nutrients Call Scott 509-590-0437 www.Barr-Tech.net Sprague, WA Authorized Dealer of Pik Rite Manure & Compost Spreaders SPAE18-1/101