So far we've had a fairly mild winter but we did have a white Christmas which my kids were super excited about - though it was WARM and I was able to walk the dog for over an hour (and I got hot!). It's even rained over the last day.
However, last year we changed into Zone 5a instead of Zone 4. This is dependent upon our lowest average temperature. Zone 4 is designated down to -30 while Zone 5 is designated down to -20.
I find this to be true in the past few years. Taking the Master Gardener course we got to see many different science tables that have taken data from over the 30-75 years to look at weather patterns. Our area has consistently been warmer and I won't be surprised if in the next 5 years, the whole of southern Minnesota will be Zone 5.
There are positives for gardeners - we can grow new plants like lavender and fig trees. But the negatives are pretty swift - insects and bugs that we have not seen before in our area, algae, new plant diseases, bacterias, viruses, plants not being able to survive the warmer weather. But I don't think the general public sees warmer weather as a bad thing - especially here in the upper Midwest where we have cold weather and it can be pretty harsh. So ah, you know, dumpster fire for the Earth.
Hopefully people will care and we can repair some of the damage that has been done. I'm hopeful.
