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SE Michigan Microclimate / Similar to parts of KY

16 years ago

It is amazing how much colder Toronto/London is than Detroit/Windsor. For that as a fact, even Chicago is somewhat colder than Detroit. Both Chi and Toronto are at almost the same latitude Detroit but are much more continental than SE MI/SW Ont.

I know that Essex County is just as warm as Detroit area and there are whole lots of funky plants that grow in both of these areas that match a Kentucky/Northern VA type climate.

It is an interesting microclimate.

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Comments (5)

jimhardy
16 years ago
Yea,but I think all the zone discussion is a little misleading,don't get me wrong I am in 5b not 5a (haha)and there is something to all the min low temp stuff but someone sould develope a scale that takes into account days above freezing nights near freezing etc some way of determining stress on plants growing out of their zones,something like a heating degree days scale even with that said there are a lot of factors that go into why a plant dies out of zone-We had a somewhat long cold winter here in s.e. Iowa but low temps would only indicate a 6b winter,not very accurate in discribing our winter-also I looked at washington d.c. winter and they only had a min low of 16F and only 3 days in the teens total,go figure.
nyssaman
16 years ago
It is really intersting - I'm in London Ontario zone 6 and their is a Zone change about 5 KM east of the City 5b when I'm coming back from the inlaws that live 40 km east of here I watch the temp guage in the car, the temp always goes up a couple of degrees when heading back home especially at the 5 km mark. I grow native trees as a hobby that one day I would like to turn into a business the zone that runs along the north shore of lake Erie is the called the Carolinian zone it has much of the same flora that exists in the Carolinas (Papaw,Cucumber Magnolia, Sassafras, Tulip Tree, its nickname is the Banana belt they hardly ever get any measurable snowfall mostly a dusting thats it. There is also SweetGum that grows on Pt. Peelee National Park they do not know if it occurs naturally here. I know down in Windsor they have a lot of sub tropical plants that will not grow here in London. Windsor always seems to be about 5 degrees warmer than we are here. The wind in the summer in London is predominately from the north . In Windsor it is always from the south - If its 30'C here in London,it is 34-35'C in Windsor - On our zone system Windsor is considered 6B-7A.
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blondboy47
16 years ago
Even in shorter distances.

Yes, Toronto is a 5a/b. I live in Hamilton, about 74km (46miles), BELOW the mountain and we're a 6b, almost 7, while a couple of miles away, on the mountain, it's 1/2 to 1 zone less, a 5a to 5b as well. Plus, they get lots more snow than we do down here.

It's funny too, how even some people who live in Hamilton, don't get that. Not until they come to our area and our back yard and see for themselves the difference in temps and snow fall (not counting THIS year! geeze! ehheehhee)
blondboy47
16 years ago
Even in shorter distances.

Yes, Toronto is a 5a/b. I live in Hamilton, about 74km (46miles), BELOW the mountain and we're a 6b, almost 7, while a couple of miles away, on the mountain, it's 1/2 to 1 zone less, a 5a to 5b as well. Plus, they get lots more snow than we do down here.

It's funny too, how even some people who live in Hamilton, don't get that. Not until they come to our area and our back yard and see for themselves the difference in temps and snow fall (not counting THIS year! geeze! ehheehhee)
blondboy47
16 years ago
Sometimes, I think it's not good to just minimize a browser.

When I maximized it and tried to go to the top, it said that it had to resend the data.... who knew it was for a post on the 20th!? LOL

So, sorry about that folks.... bad BAD Bill Gates!

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