Hi Fei Lo,

I was glad to see they revised this, and I wish more countries would follow the USDA's lead and update.

Malta is still listed everywhere as being zone 10b, but in all the years I've lived here, the winter temperatures have never dropped below 6°c, and that's only for about three weeks, in the dead of winter, at night, on the hilltops.

Oh wait, actually I do remember one winter about four years ago there was a freak temperature drop one night and it did reach zero for about twenty minutess out on a hilltop at night: it made all the newspaper headlines the next day as a once in a lifetime occurrence!

In other words, we have been solidly z11 for years now, and I wish the European climate maps would be updated to reflect this.

Not just my county, but the better part of the eastern end of the state has been "upgraded" to zone 7b. Speaking as someone who has been a zone pusher in the past, I think this map is wildly optimistic, at least for the areas I know personally.

I am suprised to see my zone is downgraded to 7b. I always thought we were 8

edit: by looking into state details, my area is still 8.

Thank you so much for the map! I was able to zoom it to my actual block. We have changed from 9b to 10a, which seems about right. Lots of places near us are still 9b - I looked at the nearest one, and of course it is a hill in our town. I "zone push" sometimes, but by getting plants which theoretically only like temps up to zone 8, for instance. Sometimes I order plants in catalogues which grow all over my town, and sometimes already grow in my garden, and catalogues say I am not in a cool enough zone for them, but of course they do fine.

Jackie

I'm now in zone 5b, which is not much change.

No change for me, still 9a.

Welp...I moved up a half-zone as well. Looks like I'm now 7b, which is what I've said for years, lol. Guess I'll have to change my screen name to reflect the new norm.

Still 7b

Still 9b for my zip code, but with our bit of elevation we teeter on the edge of 10a.

It feels more like 9b though. We can't grow plants like plumeria that I think of as zone 10 plants.

I don't buy it. I've been reclassified as Z6a, but my roses and frosts burning my peach blossoms says otherwise.

Steven

@BenT - looking up Sunset Zones again, I'm trying to figure out how I found it for my area once unless it was an estimate.

Something about increasing precipitation from West to East, and now I can't find it by search!

I can find images of the maps, though...

Oh, good. I'm not mad at all- it really DOES cover all of us!

Steven

Well I procrastinated about changing my zone after my handle on houzz for the last year or so. Now I dont have to lol. I moved from a then 9a to a then 8b. Now whadda ya know, I'm a 9a again 😅

I knew my last zone had become a 9b because I grow a lot of tropicals and zone push quite a bit. Stuff was consistently surviving the winter with much less or no protection.

Its all based on averages. Last year in my then 8b (new place) we had a 7b/8a ish winter. Lots of upper and mid teens. We dont usually average that here though.

I would still err on the side of caution and be prepared to protect or move things that are more tender for your zones.