snipped-for-privacy@wi.rr.xx.com wrote in news:458ba056.247145406@news- server.wi.rr.com:
Illinois there is little coma shaped zone 5 in the middle of a massive area of zone 6. Is that a lake effect thing? And why that odd little shape?
It never fails that I am *somewhere* near one of those odd little areas and I have wondered how and why they are there.
I'm glad someone's keeping track of zone changes. So far here this year, the minimum temperature is -1 F, and -15 to -20 is normal. It's still early in the winter, but we haven't dipped down to average temperature in over three weeks.
-- theoneflasehaddock
The new map looks close to the 1960 map.
Not really. The new map puts Chicago extremely close to zone 6 and the
1960 map looks like the 1990 map. I realize global warming is probably not a good thing but I don't mind being upzoned without having to move.
Extreme winter lows are not the only climate factor to be considered when choosing plants. Summer highs are also significant, as are such things as how long the lows and highs last, the general amount of moisture in the air, the wind patterns, etc. That's why I still refer to Sunset zones.
Fuschias are hardy enough for where I live. I can't grow them because my summers are too hot and dry.
"FragileWarriorElf"
snipped-for-privacy@wi.rr.xx.com wrote:
Interesting how the climate for some of us has altered in our gardening patterns. I started out in zone 6 in middle Tennessee, lived in Denver's zone 5 for five years, (there is at least one of you I've sent this to that has lived for a few decades, gardening in Denver, and remembering the blizzards and deep snows that are prevailing this year,) then after settling into a zone 6b zone for almost ten years, I moved to Eastern Tennessee in 1992, where I happened upon the first two years of the gradual change in THEIR climate. Nashville had already started changing, and I remembered it actually started as far back as the mid seventies. Nevertheless... This website is awesome in that it shows with reasonable accuracy exactly what I've been able to observe from having gardened and lived in three places and zones over the last 54 years. The animation of how the zones have changed and the differences in rising and falling (not many) temperatures drove home things as a gardener I've started noticing. Warmer winters, more rains.....or more snow's for some But I appreciate this showing me with clarity where I garden and what I can tuck into my already bursting fairy gardens some things that might be a bit more tender were it not for it being warmer in my region now. I hope you can get the full effects of the animation. Gardeners are so easy to please! Happy Solstice, and check the Hellebore's, they're making leaves and pre-buds here in Fairy Holler! And here I am wishin' for snow! (we still got January and February to get through, and there's ALWAYS the distinct possiblity of a snit fit and a good dump in early March........) not for 13 years now......but I'd not mind one....LOL The flowers and perennials benefit from a good, deep snow for about a week-
madgardener up on the damp and chilly ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking a clear and sharp English Mountian in pre-Christmas Eve, in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7,Sunset zone 36 (I might have to re-figure this one......)
called microclimates
lake effect would be warmer, something seems to be keeping that comma you mention the same temp as the area around it has warmed. cold air sinks. I know Wisconsin and there are a couple dots that are colder in the western part of the state due to deeper valleys. now between WI and MN the Mississippi joins a tributary and it is a large enough body of water to heat that area. cities are significantly warmer, called heat islands. there is also manufacturing that would warm the areas on either side of that comma. pollution from manufacturing might significantly block sunlight. even air planes contrails have been shown to block sunlight (perhaps the only good thing to come of 9/11 was the ability to detect affects of planes on environment). Ingrid
FragileWarriorElf
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