Take a look at this piece in yesterday’s Mason City Globe-Gazette about the fascinating, and perhaps startling, discussion at a key meeting of Iowa’s Climate Change Advisory Council.

We’ll have much more on these topics once the council releases its report to the governor.

Here’s a snippet from the article:

WINDSOR HEIGHTS – It’s not the averages, but the extremes that should motivate Iowans, especially elected leaders, to factor climate change into their decision-making, according to a panel that has been studying its impact on Iowa for nearly two years.

In biological systems, such as agriculture, “outcomes are defined by the extremes, not the averages,” Iowa State University Professor Richard Cruse told the Iowa Climate Change Advisory Council (ICCAC) on Monday.

And the number of extreme weather events – five-inch rainfalls, for example, is growing faster than the increase in average precipitation, fellow ISU Professor Gene Takle added.

Those conditions may produce some short-term yield gains for corn and soybean producers. However, the effect of cooler daytime temperatures, higher nighttime temperature and higher dew points – all of which Takle said are amply documented – are likely to affect all aspects of crop production from tillage and planting to crop choices as well as construction standards for farm-to-market roads, Cruse and Takle told their fellow panel members….