April ended with record heat and only a trace of rain for the month, intensifying a drought for the Sarasota-Bradenton area, but the National Weather Service forecast more seasonable temperatures and chances for rain this week. The forecast calls for a 40 percent chance of rain Tuesday, with a high of 85 — close to the normal of 83 degrees for this time of year. Thursday’s forecast calls for a 50 percent chance of rain, followed by a high Friday of just 78 as a cold front moves through the area. By…

Even short-duration heat waves could lead to failure of coffee crops.
A study by OSU’s College of Forestry showed that when Coffea arabica plants were subjected to short-duration heat waves, they became unable to produce flowers and fruit.
C. arabica is the globe’s dominant coffee-plant species, accounting for 65 percent of the commercial production of the nearly 20 billion pounds of coffee consumed globally each year.
Continually producing new flushes of leaves year-round, C. arabica grows on 80 countries in four continents in the tropics.
The OSU research investigated how leaf age and heat duration affected C. arabica’s recovery from heat stress during greenhouse testing.
"This emphasizes how sensitive Coffea arabica is to temperature," said lead author Danielle Marias, a plant physiologist with OSU’s Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society.
"Heat is very stressful to the plants and is often associated with drought.
However, in regions where coffee is grown, it may not just be hotter and drier, it could be hotter and wetter, so in this research we wanted to isolate the effects of heat."
In the OSU study, C. arabica plants were exposed to heat that produced leaf temperatures of a little over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, for either 45 or 90 minutes.
"In both treatments, photosynthesis of expanding leaves recovered more slowly than in mature leaves, and stomatal conductance of expanding leaves was reduced in both heat treatments," Marias said.

City has been experiencing maximum temperature of 41.0 degrees Celsius since last couple of days.
The night temperature also remained two degrees Celsius above normal at 21.2 degrees Celsius.
“Winds blowing from north to southward direction will take its toll on the night temperature more and heat waves coming from neighbouring states can push the temperature up in coming days,” weathermen said.
The humidity recorded on Thursday morning was 19 per cent and 11 per cent in the evening.
Water scarcity in many areas With the increase of temperature, residents of various areas in the city are facing water scarcity and they have to wait for tankers to meet their water demands.
Water works incharge of Indore Municipal Corporation Balram Verma claimed that they have not received any major complaint about water scarcity.
“In view of the increasing heat, we will increase number of water tankers to meet the needs of the city.
He said the corporation started water supply through few water tankers.
Save water campaign Expecting more water shortage, city residents have started a campaign to save water by taking small steps and changes in habits.
Auto dealer Sandeep Goyal said, “I have to keep the vehicles clean for getting good business but due to water scarcity, I have directed my staff not to wash vehicles daily.” Similarly, senior associate of an NGO, Kirti Dixit said that people should work on water re-charging campaign once again.