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Many garden plants have minimum temperature requirements, and are unable to survive winter temperatures below a given threshold. This map shows climate-related planting zones for contiguous U.S. locations based on annual minimum temperatures from 1981-2010.
Planting zones are based on the 30-year average of the coldest day of the year at each location between 1981-2010, based on Global Historical Climatology Network-Daily data from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). They are not the same as the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone maps.
The 30-year averages were sorted into 10°F bins ranging from -40°F to 40°F. Then values were gridded to create continuous zones in which plants would be likely to face similar winter minimum temperatures. Warmer zones are colored darker green, and cooler zones are colored paler green.
These maps were produced in 2011 by Russell Vose of NCEI and NOAA Climate.gov as part of the communication and outreach that accompanied the release of the latest U.S. Climate Normals. Updated each decade, the U.S. Climate Normals are 30-year averages of many pieces of weather information collected from thousands of weather stations nationwide.
Each time the official Normals are updated, the earliest decade is dropped, and the most recent decade is added. With the 2011 update, the 1970s were dropped, and the 2000s were added. These planting-zone maps were created to illustrate how some of the climate variables that underpin the U.S. Climate Normals would be changing as the 30-year period shifted from 1971-2000 to 1981-2010.
Many garden plants have minimum temperature requirements, and are unable to survive winter temperatures below a given threshold. This map shows climate-related planting zones for contiguous U.S. locations based on annual minimum temperatures from 1981-2010.
Planting zones are based on the 30-year average of the coldest day of the year at each location between 1981-2010, based on Global Historical Climatology Network-Daily data from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). They are not the same as the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone maps.
The 30-year averages were sorted into 10°F bins ranging from -40°F to 40°F. Then values were gridded to create continuous zones in which plants would be likely to face similar winter minimum temperatures. Warmer zones are colored darker green, and cooler zones are colored paler green.
These maps were produced in 2011 by Russell Vose of NCEI and NOAA Climate.gov as part of the communication and outreach that accompanied the release of the latest U.S. Climate Normals. Updated each decade, the U.S. Climate Normals are 30-year averages of many pieces of weather information collected from thousands of weather stations nationwide.
Each time the official Normals are updated, the earliest decade is dropped, and the most recent decade is added. With the 2011 update, the 1970s were dropped, and the 2000s were added. These planting-zone maps were created to illustrate how some of the climate variables that underpin the U.S. Climate Normals would be changing as the 30-year period shifted from 1971-2000 to 1981-2010.