Just checked the new map. We went from 6a to 6b. I thought we got raised to Z7, but was wrong. Coldest it has been here in last 30 years was -20 for one overnight freeze.
Can you imagine living back in the day? You had no idea what was coming…bad weather…Indians…Vikings…whatever!
If you got some time, check out these sodbusters. Lots of AG related things in the photos. (They view better as downloads if you want to look at them all.)
https://archive.org/details/iconic-sodbusters-of-the-prairie-d.-d.-teoli-jr.-a.-c.-193
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Oh, I see why Alaska is getting warmer! They relocated the islands to the south of California. Alaska used to be to the West, to the other side of Hawaii when it was there.
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I find it funny people are seeing changes honestly. My rating was 5b before and is still 5b. Things that would have not lived before are still not living. I lost my flavor grenade pluots and my emerald carpet raspberry zone or not. I have some surprises like the pluerry living and I wondered if all the pluots would live anyway. The ones the Dave Wilson manager recommended to me all lived (namely the ones on the regular 4 in 1 pluot) the zee sweet pluots he said would not make it a lot of them still died (at least on the north side)
It is the same for me, zone 8a & 8b touch in(midlands) Columbia, S.C.
Just as it did in the late 70’s,80’s & 90’s.
I was checking Stark Bros and they did change my zone from 5b to 6a. That being said my zip code is shared with part of Genese Colorado. My dad had the same zip as my mother and those two places are far different. My dad was lucky to grow squash. He planted fruit trees but he never seemed to get fruit when I lived there. He planted a entire orchard and I did not see him get anything but annuals.
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Instead of searching by zip code you can just zoom in on the map and keep zooming in until you can see your immediate area:
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Dear god this is a horrible new map. They are claiming the Denver CO area and Montrose are the same temperature and that Grand Junction is only 5 degrees hotter than us. Montrose gets 34 inches of snow on average a year, Grand Junction only 15 and we get 73 inches. We are nowhere close to the climate of Montrose let alone Grand Junction.
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As has previously been stated, these maps are based off the average winter extreme minimum temperatures for the 30 year period from 1991-2020. Nothing more, nothing less. They have nothing to do with precipitation or snow, nothing to do with high temps, and really nothing to do with average mins since it’s only taking that 1 coldest morning out of 365 into account. It’s going to miss the smaller scale nuances of everyone’s backyards due to the lack of resolution as well.
A chart like this would probably be more beneficial for fruit growers or zone pushers.
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As @weatherandtrees said, none of that stuff is part of the calculation, and none of it was part of the calculation for the 1990 or 2012 maps either. They have nothing to do with how hot it is or how often it snows. The only data point is “what was the coldest temperature each year from 1991 to 2020” and then average those 30 numbers. That’s it!
But also, I’m looking at the map and it looks like you misread it?
Denver is 6a surrounded closely by 5b:
Montrose is 6b (though near the 6a line):
Grand Junction is 7a (though near the 6b line):
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on the map im in 4b but go up the hill from me about 150 yrds is z5a. my orchard on the top of a higher hill 1/4 mile away is a solid 5a. why im playing with chestnut and persimmons up there.
Do any of these Weather stations track chill hours automatically???
You laugh, but twice in his life my son was asked in all seriousness, “Can we drive to Alaska?” And twice someone else responded quickly, “There’s no bridge, man!”
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The time the sky changes would be the only reason I would go up there. I could never handle it up there. I have a hard time in Denver let alone Alaska. People have taken pictures and posted on here of the snow being so high they have a snow wall around their truck.
last winter they had very heavy snowfall so it wasnt a typical Alaska snowfall. the whole west coast for that matter.
We are flooded. Badly flooded. Spring rains give us a break! The dry creek on our property line is 8 foot in places.
When I moved here I was disappointed to find out we don’t get a lot of snow. Then again, we came from Northern Japan, one of the snowiest places in the planet.
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I’m now 7a, but parts of my lot are definitely 5b and others are more like 7b. micro climates and all that.
average lowest temp is useful for a lot of things but over the lifespan of a tree the occasional cold snaps are pretty important too. I wish the zone map was more granular to account for that somehow, but it’s just the average low
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California uses a more nuanced system that is more useful in determining hardiness
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is that the sunset zone thing?
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