New USDA map shows northward shift of plant-growing zones

[JGeropoulas]

I thought this article was interesting as possible evidence of the earth's rotational axis shifting (not global warming as some in this article suggest). The key detail to me is the shifting of all the zones vs. an enlargement of warmer zones (see link to graphic at the bottom).

It would interesting to research if this shift fits any theorized trajectories of an axial shift, and whether comparable zones on the opposite side of the globe have shifted in tandem towards the south. Here are some excerpts from the recent article by Janice Lloyd in USA TODAY (January 26, 2012):

"Every gardener is familiar with the multicolor U.S. map of climate zones on the back of seed packets. It's the Department of Agriculture's indicator of whether a flower, bush or tree will survive the winters in a given region.

It's also 18 years old. A growing number of meteorologists and horticulturists say that because of the warming climate, the 1990 map doesn't reflect a trend that home gardeners have noticed for more than a decade: a gradual shift northward of growing zones for many plants.

The map doesn't show, for example, that the Southern magnolia, once limited largely to growing zones ranging from Florida to Virginia, now can thrive as far north as Pennsylvania. Or that kiwis, long hardy only as far north as Oklahoma, now might give fruit in St. Louis.

[M]eteorologist Mark Kramer...worked on the 1990 USDA map that remains in effect, as well as a proposed update in 2003 that ... was rejected by the USDA...[It] was based on data from 1986 to 2002 and showed a significant march northward of boundaries for warm-weather plants. For example, plants that for decades had frozen and died in Nebraska suddenly were doing just fine.

USDA officials reject suggestions that the agency's resistance to changing the 1990 map reflects a reluctance to acknowledge the potential impact of climate change. They say the agency wants its next map to reflect a 30-year period that gives a fuller picture of the world's climate than the 16-year examination Kramer conducted for his updated map.

In 2006, the Arbor Day Foundation put out a map based on data from 1991 to 2005 that [also] shows a significant northward movement of warm zones for plants and crops."

This is a link to a graphic showing the northward migration of the plant-growing zones (slide the button on the bottom bar to transition from the old zones to the new ones).

_http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2008-04-23-gardening-map_N.htm

 

[Bobo08]

To cause such effect, shifting of the earth's rotational axis has to be quite large and would be very noticeable, IMO.

An alternative explanation is that the earth WAS warming up to 1997. It has stopped warming since then but perhaps the temperature has not gone down to the 1990 level, which is when the original map was produced. FWIW.

 

[bngenoh]

Don't know if this is related in anyway, but here it goes anyway. Yesterday when outside smoking, it was about 10:30 a flock of black birds came from the south, about 100 or so in numbers, and were heading NORTH. It is very weird because a couple of weeks ago they were coming from the north in much greater numbers, staying in the woods around the neighborhood and then flying south. It might be that they got separated from the flock or something, but unlikely since birds navigate by the magnetic field of the earth, this might say something about the field itself osit, but it is anecdotal since i have no pictures, etc

 

[bngenoh]

This whole thing reminds me of this:

Q: Okay, let me get more specific: the Atlantean land that was supposed to have existed in the Atlantic Ocean... what was the farthest north of any part of Atlantis that was in the ocean, that no longer exists?
A: It is “time for you” to know that Atlantis was not a nation, land, Island, or continent, but rather, a civilization!

Q: Well, I sort of think that the Azores and the Canary Islands are sort of...
A: Yes, but many other places too. Remember, the sea level was several hundred feet lower then...

Q: Why was the sea level several hundred feet lower? Because there was ice somewhere or because there was not as much water on the earth at that time?
A: Ice.

Q: Was the ice piled up at the poles? The ice sheet of the ice age?
A: Yes.

Q: So, Atlantis existed during the ice age?
A: Largely, yes. And the world’s climate was scarcely any colder away from the ice sheets than it is today.

Q: Well, how could that be? What caused these glaciers?
A: Global warming.

Q: How does global warming cause glaciers?
A: Increases precipitation dramatically. Then moves the belt of great precipitation much farther north. This causes rapid buildup of ice sheets, followed by increasingly rapid and intense glacial rebound.

A Northward shift of plant growing zones, is an indicator of precipitation also shifting northwards, osit.

This video also talks about this topic: _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTa6hBVXzZE&feature=g-vrec

 

[JGeropoulas]

...
A Northward shift of plant growing zones, is an indicator of precipitation also shifting northwards, osit.

Yes, that's how I was thinking about it.