At a press conference this morning, the USDA announced its new hardiness zone map. Here’s New York’s looks like:
Hardiness zones are based on average low winter temperature, a crucial factor — though not the only one — determining which plants will survive over winter. From the USDA news release:
Compared to the 1990 version, zone boundaries in this edition of the map have shifted in many areas. The new map is generally one 5-degree Fahrenheit half-zone warmer than the previous map throughout much of the United States. This is mostly a result of using temperature data from a longer and more recent time period; the new map uses data measured at weather stations during the 30-year period 1976-2005. In contrast, the 1990 map was based on temperature data from only a 13-year period of 1974-1986.
Some of the changes in the zones, however, are a result of new, more sophisticated methods for mapping zones between weather stations. These include algorithms that considered for the first time such factors as changes in elevation, nearness to large bodies of water, and position on the terrain, such as valley bottoms and ridge tops. Also, the new map used temperature data from many more stations than did the 1990 map.
Nina Bassuk, David W. Wolfe, William Miller and Art DeGaetano answered questions from the media at a “conference call press conference” later in the day. (Reports on their comments coming soon.)
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map website provides many features that go far beyond the static map from 1990. Explore it at: planthardiness.ars.usda.gov