good news, my heating bill will be lower and burn less hydrocarbons resulting in less pollution into the air.

The strawberry plants I planted last year are sure to survive this winter. This is great news.

the corn belt is moving north baby!

I'm in the Bemidji area and while we used to be on the cusp of zones 2b and 3a (average coldest winter temp to -40˚F), we still see temperatures below the -35˚F threshold nearly every year. Only a few winters in the past 15 years, for example, didn't see temperatures that cold. But because they take the average rather than the median, it makes it seem warmer than it really is. The fact is, -35˚F still occurs on a few occasions nearly every winter here in Bemidji. Evidence of that is shown by the small pockets of zone 3a around the Bemidji area. If you're living in Bemidji and looking to plant trees or other perennials away from the protection of your house, only buy plants rated to zone 3. You can experiment with zone 4 plants but you'll probably be disappointed when they die after a typically cold winter. If you're going to plant roses, often rated to zone 5 but still sold in local nurseries (esp. the big boxes), be sure to keep it close to the house and keep the collar well insulated with straw or mulch in the winter... and still, don't expect it to thrive every year. It may not be getting as cold as it used to during winter... but unseasonable frosts in June and August have been more common in the Bemidji area in the 1990s and 2000s than any time since the 1920s and earlier.

You guys can probably look this up yourself but I thought it was interesting: From the USDA Website: http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/AboutWhatsNew.aspx Climate Change Climate changes are usually based on trends in overall average temperatures recorded over 50-100 years. Because the USDA PHZM represents 30-year averages of what are essentially extreme weather events (the coldest temperature of the year), changes in zones are not reliable evidence of whether there has been global warming. Compared with the 1990 version, zone boundaries in this edition of the map have shifted in many areas. The new PHZM is generally one half-zone warmer than the previous PHZM throughout much of the United States, as a result of a more recent averaging period (1974–1986 vs. 1976–2005). However, some of the changes in the zones are the results of the new, more sophisticated mapping methods and greater numbers of station observations used in this map, which has greatly improved accuracy, especially in mountainous regions. These changes are sometimes to a cooler, rather than warmer, zone.

I knew it wouldn't take long....one abnormally warm late fall and early winter and it's effects of climate change. What a gas....pun intended. Please, people. I don't know what it is going to take to get people to remember....oh, I don't know....LAST YEAR! We had a week where it didn't break 4 * and it was teens below zero for 10 nights straight. Two winters ago, we didn't have a day above 32 degrees for 56 days. Was that a sign of global cooling and an impending ice age? There are two main variables with our weather that people need to pay attention to....1. The big yellow dot in the sky and how we move closer and farther away in orbit to it. 2. The Pacific Ocean and it's effects of the patterns of weather we get. That's it, folks. It's not your Yukon or your wood burning stove. It would be nice to think we could just stop doing everything and the planet would be saved!!! Well, the planet is just fine and will be for another Billion years or so. I do have one question of all the dark people who want to think we are all evil doers...breathing in and out.....what is " normal" weather supposed to be? I bet there are about a billion different opinions on that.

I love how there's a tiny sliver of zone 5 corresponding directly with the airport's 30R/30L flight paths over South Minneapolis. Things that make you go "hm."

Says the expert....He stand the giant fig tree in his suburban Boston yard stands as an example: "People don't think of figs as a crop you can grow in the Boston area. You can do it now." Question: How long does it take a fig tree to become GIANT? Answer: Long before this (or the previous 2) upgrade(s) to the planting guide.