AHS Heat Zones

grampz

Thanks for adding this info Matt...I really think this can be of as much or more importance than USDA zone for answering many questions about our trees...As Mr. Mon pointed out, this is very useful in determining many factors about growth of several different species...I do hope many will take advantage of using this...

Regards
Behr

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TreeBay

I don't know why three different values are reported, but, actually it doesn't look like there is a great deal of difference for those zones. A solid week's worth of heat days could get you from zone 2 to zone 4. The steps in that area are only 6 or 7 days apart. They get much larger as you go up the scale, in blocks of 15 or even 30 heat days.

Some possibilities. Is there a lot of variation in micro climate in your area? Are you near a large body of water, or does that zip cover a big area?

Regards,

Matt

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Pill_Man

Very large body of water... Lake Ontario. I'm basically just across the lake from Toronto, Canada.

Thanx for the explanation.

Tony

Good point Tom. By mid spring around here it's already pushing the 90's. That's about the time temperate trees are slowing down and the tropicals are just starting to grow. According to the chart I'm in AHS zone 8. This chart is a good start but still needs some more work. After all, there's a big difference between 60 straight days of 90 degree highs and 60 straight days of 115 degree highs.

Tony

TreeBay

>After all, there's a big difference between 60 straight days of 90 degree highs and 60 straight days of 115 degree highs.

The guy with the 60 days at 90F would probably fall in AHS 6 or 7. The guy sweating bullets with the 60 days at 115F is probably having well over 100 days that break 86F - that would put him almost certainly upwards of AHS 8.

The system is not perfect, but it sure beats talking about USDA zones in the summertime.

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Tony

Matt, not necessarily. For instance, take Miami Florida and Phoenix Arizona.The two will rate about the same on the chart as for days over 86F. but there will be few days over 100 in Miami compared to Phoenix where you'll have many 110 plus days. I wasn't trying to rain on your parade. I think the chart is a good thing all in all. Now if they they can come up with a humidity map.

Tony

DavidN

Matt, do you know how the rest of the world can find their AHS zone?
Thanks

TreeBay

I have been browsing around looking for exactly that kind of information on the web.

If there were an accessible database of annual temperature high & low, it should not be hard to calculate it with something like Excel. Have you seen such charts for Australia?

BTW,

This doesn't help much with the problem, but I thought the little titles that come up when you rollover this USDA Zone map are too funny:

http://davesgarden.com/zone/

The map is divided into regions like

leftcoast
Sinworld
rainyworld
potatoes
Tornado Alley
Laura Ingalls
Wrestlers
Soon to be Gulf of Mexico
AOL Country
Poppysue World (dunno what that is)
Mooseland
Hulaland

They pop up in a Treebeard-annoying way when you roll across the map.

Regards,

Matt

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DavidN

Thanks Matt. I had a look at our Meteorology website and it is difficult to find anything of use. I'll keep trying.