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2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

synclinorium

synclinorium

Not sure if anyone posted this yet, but I figured it would be more appropriate to put it in the Other forum since the pepper growers tend to carefully control the growing conditions of their peppers anyway... you can move it as you see fit.

The USDA has released an updated hardiness zone map, which can be seen here: http://planthardines...eb/Default.aspx

In case you haven't noticed a general milding of our winters in recent years, the USDA data seems to confirm this.

Of course, they worded it very carefully so that the data was not perceived to be evidence of climate change, but I don't want to drag politics into this so let's just enjoy it. As a geologist you can imagine what side of the issue I fall on; I will just say I am not at all surprised by the revised map.
 
Hmmm ... not sure I agree with that chart. I used to be a 5a, the chart says I'm now a 6a, which has average minimum lows of -10 to -5. However, every year since I've been here, except this one, we've had lows in the -15 to -10 range, which would be a 5b. Actually it doesn't matter what zone they say I'm in. All that really matters to me is first and last frost dates, which haven't changed just because their chart did.
 
highalt said:
Hmmm ... not sure I agree with that chart. I used to be a 5a, the chart says I'm now a 6a, which has average minimum lows of -10 to -5. However, every year since I've been here, except this one, we've had lows in the -15 to -10 range, which would be a 5b. Actually it doesn't matter what zone they say I'm in. All that really matters to me is first and last frost dates, which haven't changed just because their chart did.
Click to expand...

Ah yeah, I always lump those together in my head. Still, if the general warming trend continues one would expect the last frost dates might also be adjusted eventually.

The problem with mountainous areas and areas directly adjacent is that their climates tend to be a bit less stable... with this sort of data, I'm always curious to see the median values in addition to averages, as well as confidence limits on their estimates... averages really don't help you much if your range of possible values is excessive.
 
synclinorium said:
with this sort of data, I'm always curious to see the median values in addition to averages, as well as confidence limits on their estimates... averages really don't help you much if your range of possible values is excessive.
Click to expand...

All right sync, you are proof that even if 5 out of 4 people don't understand statistics,
there is still someone who does! Music to a math teacher's (ex) ears :D
 
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