Current:Home > ContactSweaty corn is making it even more humid -WealthDrive Solutions
Sweaty corn is making it even more humid
View
Date:2025-04-18 22:25:39
Barb Boustead remembers learning about corn sweat when she moved to Nebraska about 20 years ago to work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and found herself plunked down in an ocean of corn. The term for the late-summer spike in humidity from corn plants cooling themselves was “something that locals very much know about,” Boustead, a meteorologist and climatologist, recalled.
But this hallmark of Midwestern summer might be growing stickier thanks to climate change and the steady march of industrial agriculture. Climate change is driving warmer temperatures and warmer nights and allowing the atmosphere to hold more moisture. It’s also changed growing conditions, allowing farmers to plant corn further north and increasing the total amount of corn in the United States.
Farmers are also planting more acres of corn, in part to meet demand for ethanol, according to the USDA’s Economic Research Service. It all means more plants working harder to stay cool — pumping out humidity that adds to steamy misery like that blanketing much of the U.S. this week.
Storm clouds build above a corn field Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, near Platte City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
It’s especially noticeable in the Midwest because so much corn is grown there and it all reaches the stage of evapotranspiration at around the same time, so “you get that real surge there that’s noticeable,” Boustead said.
Dennis Todey directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Midwest Climate Hub, which works to help producers adapt to climate change. He said corn does most of its evapotranspiration — the process of drawing water up from the soil, using it for its needs and then releasing it into the air in the form of vapor — in July, rather than August.
He said soybeans tend to produce more vapor than corn in August.
Storm clouds build as corn grows on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, near Platte City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Todey said more study is necessary to understand how climate change will shape corn sweat, saying rainfall, crop variety and growing methods can all play a part.
But for Lew Ziska, an associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University who has studied the effects of climate change on crops, warmer conditions mean more transpiration. Asked whether more corn sweat is an effect of climate change, he said simply, “Yes.”
He also noted increasing demand for corn to go into ethanol. Over 40% of corn grown in the U.S. is turned into biofuels that are eventually guzzled by cars and sometimes even planes. The global production of ethanol has been steadily increasing with the exception of a dip during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Renewable Fuels Association.
Storm clouds build above a corn field Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, near Platte City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
The consumption of ethanol also contributes to planet-warming emissions.
“It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that it’s been getting hotter. And as a result of it getting hotter, plants are losing more water,” Ziska said.
___
Follow Melina Walling on X at @MelinaWalling.
___
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
veryGood! (78118)
Related
- Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
- Lidcoin: Crypto Assets Become New Investment Option
- Lidcoin: Coin officially acquires Indonesian Exchange Tokocrypto
- Mega Millions jackpot grows to $141 million. See winning numbers for Sept. 12 drawing.
- Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
- Extortion trial against Joran van der Sloot, suspect in Natalee Holloway disappearance, is delayed
- Ask HR: How to quit a job and what managers should do after layoffs
- Putin welcomes Kim Jong Un with tour of rocket launch center
- Rolling Loud 2024: Lineup, how to stream the world's largest hip hop music festival
- Governor reacts to backlash after suspending right to carry firearms in public
Ranking
- IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
- 'The Morning Show' review: Season 3 gets lost in space, despite terrific Reese Witherspoon
- Russian spaceport visited by Kim has troubled history blighted by corruption and construction delays
- Taylor Swift Is a Denim Dream at Star-Studded MTV VMAs 2023 After-Party
- What to watch: O Jolie night
- Thailand’s government, seeking return of tourists from China, approves visa-free entry for 5 months
- Palestinian Authority lashes out at renowned academics who denounced president’s antisemitic remarks
- Author Sandra Cisneros receives Holbrooke award for work that helps promote peace and understanding
Recommendation
Selena Gomez engaged to Benny Blanco after 1 year together: 'Forever begins now'
An ex-candidate in a North Carolina congressional race marked by fraud allegations is running again
Killer Danelo Cavalcante captured in Pennsylvania with 'element of surprise': Live updates
Lidcoin: Stablecoin, The Value Stabilizer of the Cryptocurrency Market
What to know about Tuesday’s US House primaries to replace Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz
New England braces for more rain after hourslong downpour left communities flooded and dams at risk
Selena Gomez Declares She’ll “Never Be a Meme Again” After MTV VMAs 2023 Appearance
Last trial in Governor Whitmer kidnapping plot heads to closing arguments