Thank you for your "Welcome" Trish ~
I live in Saratoga, New South Wales, Australia, near the coast, and was wondering what US zone would have a similar climate?
Deb

Hello Deb. Here is some info on Au climate zones. I think your zone is similar to the USDA zone 8b/9a.

http://www.yourhome.gov.au/aus...

http://www.gardenate.com/zones...

https://www.anbg.gov.au/garden...

Thank you Jean

You know what would be really helpful? A worldwide climate zone map. We should petition the UN or some similar agency to develop one AND petition growers/nurseries/publishers worldwide to adopt it. With current globalization and the popularity of sites like ATP, we really should be all "speaking the same language" when it comes to hardiness zones. Linneaus foresaw this centuries ago when he developed the Latin binomial system of plant names and that sure has served us all very well.

http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens...

Deb

You are most welcome. My daughter lives in QLD. I try to keep up with things so I can answer questions for her.

@gwhizz, @dellac, @Gleni ???

Hi Evan.
If you mean "are any of the above my DD?", no. That is why I have to keep up. The Gardener in my Au family is my 9 y/o grandson.

Jean, all 3 are members are from Australia and may be of some help with interpreting our USDA zones. Sorry for being so criptic

Thanks Evan.

The link that greene posted above has a good map with the zones color coded to minimum temp ranges, and also the equivalent US zones beside the map. Very useful.

Glen (Gleni) lives near Brisbane on an island, and from a few months of discussions we've found he grows many of the same plants that I do. His climate seems to be quite similar to mine here in FL, zone 9b or 10a. I'd imagine Deb (thehazell) might be slightly cooler, being further south but similar since they are near the water, too.

Don't forget the hardiness zones are only averages of the minimum winter temperatures in a given area. They don't take into account differences in humidity, sun intensity, soil type, rainfall and other factors that make, for example a zone 8 garden in the Pacific Northwest very different from a zone 8 garden in Arizona or Florida. They are only the same zone designation because their winter lows are similar.

@thehazell, how much rainfall do you get each year? Is it very dry where you are?

I found a better map.
https://www.greenharvest.com.a...

Tasmania, is where Im located, Evan . Right below Australia. Wine Grapes region, beautiful stonefruits. It occasionally gets into the minuses/or in summer, the mid 30's. Only places in and around Canberra/ Orange etc [on mainland Australia are similar].. From what Connie has described, I think we are similar to Oregon- Anthony

>> You know what would be really helpful? A worldwide climate zone map.

Annie, I agree strongly! The "Koppen climate system" was someone's attempt to create a global climate map with SOME attention to agriculture, like "similar things should be able to grow in similar regions". However, it is SO detailed that the same US county might have three different Koppen climate zones within it.

Hi, Thehazell, and welcome to ATP!

I think that “Saratoga, New South Wales, Australia" is in the “Central Coast”.

Wikipedia says:
The Central Coast has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa), with warm summers and mild winters. Rainfall is spread fairly evenly throughout the year, but is slightly more frequent during Autumn.

Koppen “Cfa”, if you agree with their description of your climate, can be found all over the world.

This Wikipedia article describes Cfa around 40% of the way down:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K...
“... Humid subtropical climates, ...
... frequent but short-lived summer thundershowers, ...
.... summer is often the wettest season”

Examples of Cfa climate:
. . . Rasht, Gilan, Iran (Cfa)
. . . São Paulo, Brazil (Cfa)
. . . USA states with several counties that are mostly Cfa:
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Kansas, Maryland and parts of Texas.


Here is a detailed list of USA Koppen regions, by County:
http://koeppen-geiger.vu-wien....
Where one county contains more than one Koppen zone, the % of land area for each zone is listed.
There are lots of "Cfa" counties.

Here are some maps showing “Koppen zones”:

world map:
http://people.eng.unimelb.edu....
(Look closely and you'll find a line of links for continental maps.)
(Scroll down for mathematical definitions of each term “C”, “f” and “a”.)

Oz map
http://www.google.com/imgres?i...

I couldn’t get to this site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K...

North America:

Many Google Images of Koppen maps:
https://www.google.com/search?...

Welcome. to ATP Deb. You have come to right place.

I am still not sure what to put for climate zone. I keep on changing mine. You will be colder and more temperate than here in Southeast Queensland.

Speaking of maps, here is the ATP Member map. Everyone who listed a recognizable address in their personal profile shows up on this map:

http://garden.org/users/member...

Here is the "Memberlist" feature for searching that map by member-name or address:
http://garden.org/users/member...

It looks like four people within 50 miles of Saratoga:

User - - - - - - - - - - - Location - - - - - - - - - - Miles away
MatthewWilliam - - - Sydney - - - - - - - - - - - - - 29
Chrissy100 - - - - -rural Sydney Australia - - - - - 29
sjw282 - - - - - - St. Clair, NSW, Australia - - - - - - 45
bloomlover - - - - Newcastle, NSW, Australia - - - 48

The big fat river divides us, Deb!

dyzzypyxxy said:Don't forget the hardiness zones are only averages of the minimum winter temperatures in a given area. They don't take into account differences in humidity, sun intensity, soil type, rainfall and other factors that make, for example a zone 8 garden in the Pacific Northwest very different from a zone 8 garden in Arizona or Florida. They are only the same zone designation because their winter lows are similar.

For reasons like this I have never tried to equate my climate here in Hobart with any US zone. But welcome and good luck finding a zone match!