Today I uploaded the new version of our USDA Zipcode lookup tool. To see it click on "Zone lookup" in the menubar or just go here:

http://garden.org/nga/zipzone/

The main change was that I added the 2012 map. Scroll down the page halfway to read about the 2012 map and then you can click to view the actual map with a nice highway/city overlay. The 2012 map is also zoomable by simply moving your mouse over it.

This is one of the most visited pages on Garden.org so I'm glad to have it updated.

Very nice.
Question please. I click to make the maps larger but they still only occupy half the available space. Is there a way to make them larger (other than using the Control +)?

I'm 8b rather than 9a? Guess I should have looked at the zones a bit closer.

Hmm.. I've always been in 9a now it says I'm in 8b. I don't think it has gotten colder here. Another thing, when I type in my zip code it say 8b, but the map itself show me in 9a.

I've also always been 9A and now I'm 8A, but my area definitely hasn't gotten colder. I'm hotter than ever.

I think that might be wrong, Sue. The temperature in Sebastopol has fallen below 20 degrees only three times in the last 50 years. Every other map puts Sebastopol in zone 9a, and some of the newer data assign us to 9b. This one's very strict if it puts us in zone 8 on the basis of three morning temperature readings of 19, 17, and 14 degrees in 50 years.

We lived in Daytona Beach for 43 years and we were always listed as zone 9a; the map now lists that zip code as zone 8b. We recently moved farther south in the state to zip code 32958 which was listed as zone 10a but it's now showing us as zone 9b. The temperature from central to south Florida has gotten warmer the past ten years so I wonder why the zones have dropped.

it is puzzling, Lin. I hope we can find out what the real zones are.

I noticed I went from 8a to 7b. I used to be 7b for a long time and then it changed to the warmer zone 8a some time back. The problem is whether it's the same zone map or if the one that I used that changed it to 8a was from another source, and not a USDA map. It might not matter in my case anyway. I'm going to be really close to that line going to Laredo and may be in the area where it says the map doesn't work well. But I know that already, no matter which side of the line I'm on. Lots of experience with the assigned zone not working for me.

http://planthardiness.ars.usda...

Read down that page. There are two maps: the 1990 map and the 2012 map. We have both of them on the link here but the zipcode is searching the 1990 data.

I meant that it was wrong for 1990. It says I'm in zone 8b, but I moved here in 1984 and every source told me I was in zone 9a at that time. It didn't suddenly get colder 6 years later in 1990. If anything, the winters have steadily grown warmer. Furthermore, the 1990 map also looks faulty because not one of the temperature readings below 20 degrees that I mentioned in my previous post took place in 1974-1986, the period on which the 1990 map is based.

I had edit it but now I put mine back to 9a.

I'm interested to see that we are zone 10a (as I always thought) but the Miami area is 10b.

You can double-check your zone using indicator plants. The USDA zone plant list is here:

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardz...

You Floridians can use The Sunset zones, but I have no idea how far north those go. The west coast is covered from Alaska to Hawaii for sunset climate zones, which are much more informative that USDA. I know I'm in USDA zone 10, and whether it's A or B doesn't really matter at all. Florida or Texas zone 10 are a world of difference from my zone 10.

Sunset zones are very broad for our area; we are not the same zone as The Keys, but also not in the 'Central Florida' zone. So we are better off using the USDA zone.

I've never paid attention to sunset zones but according to this page http://www.sunset.com/garden/c... I'm in Sunset Zone 26

Well, Fl. like Ca. has a lot of different climates. It isn't just about cold hardiness or even high temps.. You don't have desert or mountains to deal with like we do, but you still have rain and humidity, as well as the occasional freezes. I don't know if your Sunset zone maps have the same info t the different zones that we have on the west coast, as I didn't know they were even on the east coast until this year, but I find it invaluable info here.