The scale of Puerto Rico to Alaska in the 2023 map is really something.
We have the wood.
That's really difficult. Has anyone else noticed?
Strange how the projection of Alaska is different in each one.
I heard Texans never like it when Alaska is accurately shown as larger than Texas. Probably some Texas politician made the FDA use a different projection.
The scale is also different but the projection is a separate matter.
What's weird is that both scale and projection differ in unpredictable ways among the three maps. The 1990 one looks like it has the Lower 48, Alaska, and Hawaii all at the same scale and the same projection, which as you can see makes Alaska especially super-distorted.
For 2012 they have different scales for the outlying areas but the projection seems to be the same, modified appropriately (i.e., recentered on the area in question). This is the approach that I think makes the most sense.
For 2023 they've kept the same projection for the L48 but seem to have changed it for the outlying areas. It's not clear why or what benefit there is to this.
This is clearly why all the links I found were suppressing the side-by-side comparison. It reveals too much.
The colors and the drawing style (with the marbling effect) of the contiguous US in the 1990 map look just like the rubber hi-bounce ball that I had as a kid. (The later maps are nice too, but the first is my favorite.)
It's been noticeable here, as a lot of plants that my neighbors thought of as annuals for me are perennials.
Also a decent number of the bulbs I put it in October have sprouted instead of wintering over.
The Arbor Day Foundation seems to both do their own maps and also use the USDA one. At this link they have a 1990-2015 difference map (you have download and open a zip file).
The visual is basically alternating broad stripes (very chopped up though) of no change to 1 zone warmer changes going WSW to ENE across the eastern 2/3rds of the country with a few small patches of 2 zones warmer areas. Much more complex in the west, with some areas of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau being a zone colder. Interior Pacific NW having largest areas of 2 zones warmer.
What are the implications for agriculture?
Probably not good. I should ask my cousin if he plants earlier than he did thirty years ago.
20 years ago, I gather syrup-making season in Vermont was March, maybe even April. My dad has taken it up as a hobby and he's doing it in February. That's all well and good until it never gets cold enough for syrup at all.
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Did fencing affect the distribution of tumbleweeds?
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Yes, because they mostly like epee.I
24: I did get the general thrust of what 22 was saying, though.
26: Supposedly, the LDS corporation-thing is buying corn land in Nebraska.
This has a side-by-side comparison of the maps: https://www.npr.org/2023/11/17/1213600629/-it-feels-like-im-not-crazy-gardeners-arent-surprised-as-usda-updates-key-map
30: they really need to fast-forward to the bit where they're building insane gothic colony starships with giant angel statues stuck on the front.
31: yes but without my incisive commentary on Puerto Rico vs Alaska.
24 et al. are well worth taking the time to really sabre.