The new normal?

As was noted here yesterday and I'm sure he's not the first one, FoxNews is always the first to declare "What Global Warming?" after a snow storm somehow do not seem to be pondering why it is so damn extraordinarily hot...in yet another year? But for those who depend upon good weather for a living (as opposed to the rest of us -- to stay alive) it is having real and immediate effects:  

American farmers had high expectations for corn this year, planting 96.4 million acres of it — a number 5 percent more than the previous year. High prices and an expectation of strong returns made this year’s planting the largest corn acreage in 75 years. Those were heady times in farm country, with farmland prices rising on and on, even as the recovery moved sluggishly in other realms. An uncharacteristically warm March in the Midwest sent hopes still higher, allowing farmers to plant corn weeks earlier than usual. For some crops, including some cherries in Michigan and apples in Indiana, unexpected April frosts then caused damage, but the corn, said Randy Anderson, a farmer in Southern Illinois, went right along beautifully.

And then very little rain fell, and temperatures soared. By last week around corn country, scores of triple-digit heat records were being broken: Jefferson County, Mo., 111 degrees; Evansville, Ind., 107 degrees. That left corn...shriveling.

I'm sure the world's climate deniers have been oblivious to the reports...with their central air turned down to 62 degrees they cannot hear anything beyond the flow of air and whatever townhall.com bloviating is getting airplay on FoxNews.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]