Oh, yeah, anthropogenic climate change is definitely real. There's no doubt about it. Heat records are being broken far more often and by much wider margins than cold records, and we're seeing more and more record-breaking floods in already-rainy areas and record-breaking droughts in already-dry areas (which is to be expected because hotter air evaporates more water). Also, average temperatures in most of Tennessee have risen a few degrees in the past decade alone (1991-2020 vs. 1981-2010 NOAA climate data); average precipitation risen a few inches equally rapidly, too. I find it more likely that the destruction of wild palm populations was due to urban sprawl, irresponsible agriculture and rampant fire suppression. (Dwarf and saw palmettos actually thrive in fire-stricken pine savannas.) We've seen this with longleaf pines, too. The construction of reservoirs can't have helped, either; most subtropical North American palms actually thrive in poorly-draining soil, contrary to stereotypes about palms needing well-drained sandy soil. Besides, the wild dwarf palmettos in Cherokee County, AL and Hardin County, TN were seemingly unknown prior to the 21st century and are still little-known; if they could survive the severe volcanic winters in 1783-84 (which caused ice floes off of the Louisiana coast and a frozen Mississippi River in New Orleans) and 1816 (which caused deadly June and August frosts at least as far south as East Tennessee), surely the ones in the Deep South would've been unfazed by a volcanic winter in the Little Ice Age too! My guess as to what happened at Cape Hatteras is maybe a severe Category 5 hurricane snapped or washed away all of the cabbage palmettos (and the land they grew on); it's more hurricane-prone than anywhere other than Florida and parts of the Gulf Coast due to its extremely exposed location right by the Gulf Stream. With the Cuban royal palms in Central Florida, I'd guess that the Little Ice Age did them in (probably same for the Spanish moss in colonial-era Maryland), whereas other palm species were able to adapt to the centuries of a slightly cooler climate; some things are just down to chance. As for the Brazoria palmettos in Texas, I seriously doubt that those are cabbage palmettos. It's more likely that they're an ancient hybrid between dwarf and cabbage palmettos that migrated westwards. Maybe they could also be a more evolved subspecies of the dwarf palmetto than the Louisiana palmetto is. They're too cold-hardy to be pure cabbage palmettos, and them being a hybrid of the dwarf and Mexican palmettos has been ruled out. P.S.: There were no glaciers in Virginia in the Quaternary Ice Age as far as I know. The only Quaternary glaciations that I know of in the South were an alpine glacier on Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina and the southern edge of the Laurentide Ice Sheet covering modern-day Louisville, KY. Even the majority of Missouri, parts of Southern Illinois and most of West Virginia and the coastal mid-Atlantic escaped glaciation during every Quaternary glacial period; anywhere that was once covered in alpine glaciers would have cirques, while the LIS destroyed bedrock in old hills and left behind glacial till on top of whatever was left.

I think you also have to pay attention to your own micro climate. We're in a little valley but apparently low enough and without nearby trees to hold warmth that we get hit by frost a couple of weeks before our neighbors. I used to notice this at a vegetable garden near the center of town that was same level as the nearby river. His garden would be one of the first hit by frost in the fall. I know that we get a temperature dip right around September 18, so I watch the predictions and have used a portable low tunnel to protect a late planting of bush beans. If I can protect them for one or two nights, they have a couple more weeks of growing season. This is the difference between blooming and young beans. I have seen raised beds in the White Mountains that people edge with rocks to help provide some warmth. I've still be using Memorial Day/end of May as a planting date for tomatoes and peppers.

glib, while the article was published in, and by, Politico they were not the source of the information. The researcher was studying for his PhD at the University of Arizona Although the article was written by someone employed by Politico. To summarily dismiss what is in the article indicates a closed mind.

Climate in Florida seems to varie greatly from what I see. It seems to rain very regularly in West Palm Beach and fort Lauderdale for instance, even in winter. Actually I researched their climate and they're catergorized as a rainforest climate with no real dry season, while here in St. Pete it's a Savannah climate with long periods of dry weather. I'm considering one day moving as I can't stand the long dry season here, my soil is just nearly always dry and having to water so very often by hand is becoming too much. I was just talking to my friend about the weather in my area this summer. We both find it's been a mild summer in my area. Most days have been 90° or below while last summer it seemed like every single day was 95° or above. I just checked next weeks forecast for my area and we have most days only in the mid to upper 80's.