Cool, looks like I've been upgraded to zone 7b.

And Alpine TX has been upgraded to a shaky 8a. Here's the direct link below.

Very nice detailed map! Click on your state and the detail comes out.

Here is a link that might be useful: New USDA zone map

I've been upgraded from a 9 to a 10a. I wanted to go down not up :( So many plants I love can't grow in my zone...

It looks like my part of So Cal has stayed the same.

Still 9a here but on the border of 9b

I finally updated my profile to include my zone and now it changed. 6B to 7B

Me too, Upgraded to 7b, the entire island of long island including queens and brooklyn jumped up a complete zone.

Does your new zone seem appropriate? As I said earlier I'm bumped up to 8a, 15-20F average extreme low. We get colder than that almost every year. I haven't found a fig that is hardy outdoors yet. Last winter the only big fig around froze nearly to the ground.

I think the new map was Created by persons who have things other than Gardening on their plate.
I say this because we had 17 degrees F in October of 2010 & do not think we had 17F once in Oct., Nov. of 2011.
So how can these jumps be a new weather pattern & no the same old wild weather swing we had when I was a child.
I believe this new pattern like I believe that we all will die before 1/1/2013.

fruitnut, 8a is actually 10-15F, same zone we've been changed to here in NW SC. Strange that you're not able to grow figs there. We've had just one year in the last 15 with any damage at all.

New map uses data during the 30-year period 1976-2005. 1990 map was based on data from 1974-1986.

The zones are based on the average annual minimums, so it's expected to get colder than the range shown for the zone some years. And of course warmer other years.

jolj - we will check back with you on 01/02/2013. LOL!

Dave:

I can't really explain it but out west winter cold seems much harder on plants than in the humid east. I know people as far north as PA that do better with figs and similar plants than we do here. They are in a colder zone(6 or colder), have a much shorter growing season, and much less heat. Yet they do better with figs.

I think it probably has to do with our much more fluctuating temperatures. We often vary by 50-60F within nearly every week in winter. Teens one day and 60s the next.

So I think this zone doesn't tell the whole story.

I'd say that the zone for me (7a/6b) seems appropriate. Nine out of ten years we don't see temps below zero (7a), but 2 years ago I saw -8F at my place, which would put me in 6a. This year, like many years, I haven't seen lower than 13F (8a). Since growing fruit is a 5+ year effort, I'm sticking with zone 6.

The zone map is only the average of the low for the year. Some places are more prone to fluke cold than others so that kind of data is not always the exact number you need. I for one would prefer something like the average of the three lowest yearly lows from the last 30 years -- that would tell me what trees would likely last ten years without it getting too cold for them. By this measure I would be 6B from the last ten years since we had -2F once. But on the new map I am in 7A and almost in 7B.

Scott

fruitnut, I've always thought the reverse with regard to extreme cold in the humid east versus arid west, but I guess it really has much to do with the plants in question. I'm thinking more about things like cacti, tree yuccas, desert willow, desert bird of paradise, and others that make it here well beyond their zone designations (all of these survived a zone 4 winter last year) but would have a hard time in the Northeast.

In terms of figs, I wonder if being so far south (lots of warm days in winter) is a problem with proper hardening off. Large fig trees in Albuquerque don't die back in average winters with a night or two in the single digits. Last winter was different with temps below zero, and 88 consecutive hours of subfreezing weather in the city. Both figs and pomegranates were killed back significantly.

For those of us that live in the mountains, your post office location, usually in the valley, will not be close enough to those of us at a different elevation. We know from long experience what our average low temperature for the year is anyway. Al

Al, you're absolutely right, although folks should not always assume the lower valley location is warmer due to cold air drainage. This new map finally got it right that Santa Fe at 7,000 feet is warmer than Espanola at 5,600 feet. On clear cold winter nights the latter is always a few degrees colder even though daytime highs are greater.

Similarly, the mountains along the Rio Grande in Southern NM are the warmest zone in the state, unlike the lower reaches of the river valley as depicted in all other maps to date. So, finally here is a map that I can believe is based on real data, and it has thus dropped a few areas DOWN a half zone or more.

Map still says that I live in a really crappy area for growing stonefruit!

"I for one would prefer something like the average of the three lowest yearly lows from the last 30 years"

Right on Scott.

The average low for the last ten years is near worthless for one concerned about winter hardiness. The average low can fluctuate by 10 degrees or more, which may mean life or death for "kingdom plantae".

Another number of great significance for me would be bloom failure (due to frost). On that number, the last twenty years data for a given tree fruit would be a valuable measurement.

If one really wants to see what their local climate can do, find your local NWS and check out NOWData ... If they have it available for your local city, you can find daily temperature extremes.

{{gwi:56530}}

As you can see... Where I live, any given year could blow in air cold enough to probably kill everything but the apples...This year the coldest temp so far has been -11F.