Wasn’t this reported months ago? And zones didn’t suddenly shift just because the USDA said so. They’ve shifted over time because of climate change. The USDA just finally got around to catching up.
I used to be news director for an NPR member station, and even I think this is sloppy work.
This is a tool derived from that report which directly shows how the user’s local environment has changed. Kind of trippy to see that the environment of my childhood is not the same as the environment I’m living in now. It’s a good educational tool.
That’s not how I read the headline. Given that this story is so old (months and months), if it’s newsworthy at all today, it should be “USDA Finally Updates Climate Maps for the First Time in a Decade.”
Anyone who needs them has been paying attention to the climate for years. It’s a neat bit of science reporting, but it’s hardly “Here’s What Suddenly Changed.”
I see what you’re saying. I wasn’t aware that the USDA had updated the zones, so that was news to me at least. The appsite they built is neat. It does actually drive home that this is abnormal and will continue to accelerate in the future at least.
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