My New Hardiness Zone Map of Texas (Handmade)

[Teegurr]

I thought it was time for Texas to have a new hardiness zone map, so I made one myself. Data is from 1992-2021 NOAA minimums.

*Not completely accurate, but I hope you like it and maybe consider using it (thank you) in the future.

 

 

[Xerarch]

Looks like a pretty solid attempt to me, I'll leave any nitpicking to others

[RedRabbit]

Nice work 

[Xenon]

Lots of red and orange but I'm not complaining 

 

I see some cool botanical illustrations...can we see more of those? 

[Teegurr]

29 minutes ago, Xenon said:

Lots of red and orange but I'm not complaining 

 

I see some cool botanical illustrations...can we see more of those? 

Yeah hopefully that's at least partly accurate. I know for sure I was a little generous with 9b near Eagle Pass. The illustrations are from a book about North American trees. It's really great, but the palm drawings are a little inaccurate.

[Sabal_Louisiana]

That looks about right (hardiness maps are not an exact science anyway( but of course local microclimate should be taken into consideration, especially for urban areas.

For instance both Dallas (Love Field) vs. Austin (Bergstrom) have an average annual minimum of 18f for the past two decades despite Dallas being about 190 miles farther north.

I find it a bit odd that the 9b range makes that little extension to include El Campo, it may be legit but who knows.  And I'm thinking the line b/w 8b and 9a should be nudged a tad to the south to at least Jasper in East Texas.

 

[Teegurr]

5 hours ago, Sabal_Louisiana said:

That looks about right (hardiness maps are not an exact science anyway( but of course local microclimate should be taken into consideration, especially for urban areas.

For instance both Dallas (Love Field) vs. Austin (Bergstrom) have an average annual minimum of 18f for the past two decades despite Dallas being about 190 miles farther north.

I find it a bit odd that the 9b range makes that little extension to include El Campo, it may be legit but who knows.  And I'm thinking the line b/w 8b and 9a should be nudged a tad to the south to at least Jasper in East Texas.

 

El Campo was right at 9a/9b. You may very well be right about Jasper and 8b/9a. I couldn't find any data for Jasper or the surrounding area so I had to wing it.

As for microclimates, I didn't do much. I was a little surprised to find Joe Pool Lake in DFW to be 8a. I also included a spot of 10a in central Houston. 

[Sabal_Louisiana]

Yea, I could see where downtown Houston might barely make it into 10a. NWS data shows the mean annual minimum for Hobby Airport since 2001 or so as 27f. Select locations around the downtown might be a couple of degrees higher per year on average.

6 of 10 years b/w 2011-2020 at Hobby failed to drop below 30f. That's 10a or better inclusive.

However, each of the other 4 years experienced 25 or colder (hard freeze criteria) That's 9b or lower for those years.

Then of course, we had the aberration of 2021.

Now it's anybody's guess what the rest of the 2020s will bring.

[Xenon]

34 minutes ago, Sabal_Louisiana said:

Yea, I could see where downtown Houston might barely make it into 10a. NWS data shows the mean annual minimum for Hobby Airport since 2001 or so as 27f. Select locations around the downtown might be a couple of degrees higher per year on average.

6 of 10 years b/w 2011-2020 at Hobby failed to drop below 30f. That's 10a or better inclusive.

However, each of the other 4 years experienced 25 or colder (hard freeze criteria) That's 9b or lower for those years.

Then of course, we had the aberration of 2021.

Now it's anybody's guess what the rest of the 2020s will bring.

1990-2021 jumps to 28F for Hobby. The warmest parts of central Houston did not see below 24/25F from 1997-2016 (possibly since 1991 too, Hobby only hit 23F in 1996). Warm enough for foxtail palm, majesty palm, pygmy dates etc. 

The immediate southeastern shoreline of Galveston Bay is practically as warm as the island, and actually even warmer than the east end of Galveston Island.

Edited April 29, 2021 by Xenon

[Collectorpalms]

On 4/27/2021 at 12:26 AM, Teegurr said:

I thought it was time for Texas to have a new hardiness zone map, so I made one myself. Data is from 1992-2021 NOAA minimums.

*Not completely accurate, but I hope you like it and maybe consider using it (thank you) in the future.

 

 

Pretty nice. Glad I ignored previous ones, and planted some zone 7 and 8 palms and not all zone 9! The 1980s haunted me. Now I have the scars from 2021 to show it.

[bananaman]

On 4/28/2021 at 10:31 AM, Sabal_Louisiana said:

For instance both Dallas (Love Field) vs. Austin (Bergstrom) have an average annual minimum of 18f for the past two decades despite Dallas being about 190 miles farther north.

Austin Bergstrom is known to be in a cold pocket. The station is in the valley of Onion Creek, where cold air tends to pool. This is a direct quote from the NWS office about it: “This site is located in a low lying area in the drainage basin of the Onion Creek. Because of this, the overnight low temperature in the wintertime under clear skies can sometimes be 10 degrees colder at Austin Bergstrom compared to Austin Camp Mabry. The distance between the ASOS sites is only 10.7 miles.” For the 1991-2020 climate period, Camp Mabry averages 12 freezes a year, while the airport averages 35. It’s probably more due to the topographical effect than anything else. It does show what a difference microclimate factors can cause, though.

[Collectorpalms]

11 hours ago, bananaman said:

Austin Bergstrom is known to be in a cold pocket. The station is in the valley of Onion Creek, where cold air tends to pool. This is a direct quote from the NWS office about it: “This site is located in a low lying area in the drainage basin of the Onion Creek. Because of this, the overnight low temperature in the wintertime under clear skies can sometimes be 10 degrees colder at Austin Bergstrom compared to Austin Camp Mabry. The distance between the ASOS sites is only 10.7 miles.” For the 1991-2020 climate period, Camp Mabry averages 12 freezes a year, while the airport averages 35. It’s probably more due to the topographical effect than anything else. It does show what a difference microclimate factors can cause, though.

It was mostly due to cold air drainage. But I have noticed in the last 10 years, the effects are significantly less now that the airport area is no longer rural.

[necturus]

Looks nice and certainly reflects the data in Houston, but before the freeze it didn't necessarily reflect reality, at least to my eyes. The Greater Houston area != Corpus Christi... not even the immediate water front.

Has anyone visited TAMU Corpus Christi? I am dying to know what happened there. I am expecting the worst but hoping for a microclimate miracle.

[Teegurr]

On 5/7/2021 at 11:25 PM, necturus said:

Looks nice and certainly reflects the data in Houston, but before the freeze it didn't necessarily reflect reality, at least to my eyes. The Greater Houston area != Corpus Christi... not even the immediate water front.

Has anyone visited TAMU Corpus Christi? I am dying to know what happened there. I am expecting the worst but hoping for a microclimate miracle.

Are you saying Houston's temps are about the same as Corpus, or different? Because they are both technically 9b, Corpus is just a bit warmer 9b, as coconuts have been tried with some success there.

[necturus]

11 hours ago, Teegurr said:

Are you saying Houston's temps are about the same as Corpus, or different? Because they are both technically 9b, Corpus is just a bit warmer 9b, as coconuts have been tried with some success there.

Corpus is more of a Florida 9B. They can grow 10A stuff much longer and better than most of Houston. Houston is 9B on paper but more like Florida 9A. I guess it’s high end vs low end 9B.

[Xenon]

Downtown Corpus and within a short distance from the bayfront (especially the southern shore of CC Bay) are both easily zone 10a going by averages. If anyone's curious, check the weather data for the Naval Air Station. 

[NBTX11]

On 4/28/2021 at 10:31 AM, Sabal_Louisiana said:

That looks about right (hardiness maps are not an exact science anyway( but of course local microclimate should be taken into consideration, especially for urban areas.

For instance both Dallas (Love Field) vs. Austin (Bergstrom) have an average annual minimum of 18f for the past two decades despite Dallas being about 190 miles farther north.

I find it a bit odd that the 9b range makes that little extension to include El Campo, it may be legit but who knows.  And I'm thinking the line b/w 8b and 9a should be nudged a tad to the south to at least Jasper in East Texas.

 

Yeah but in true reality, it’s night and day between Dallas and Austin. 
There are huge old 50 plus year old Washingtonia Filifera and Sabal Palmettos and Mexicana all over Austin. There are none in Dallas (or very few if any). 

[NBTX11]

Should there be a small dot over downtown San Antonio making it a 9b, the Riverwalk in particular. 

[Austinpalm]

On 5/7/2021 at 11:25 PM, necturus said:

Looks nice and certainly reflects the data in Houston, but before the freeze it didn't necessarily reflect reality, at least to my eyes. The Greater Houston area != Corpus Christi... not even the immediate water front.

Has anyone visited TAMU Corpus Christi? I am dying to know what happened there. I am expecting the worst but hoping for a microclimate miracle.

I was there in late March for a very quick trip. What I did notice was that all the black mangrove in Oso bay were fried.  I'm sure some will return from the roots, but in my mind it got very cold if it was lower than 23F (approximate hardiness of black mangrove) out in the bay. I would expect it was at least 5 degree F colder on land, but I could be wrong. I did see many W. robusta with crown collapse.  I'm sure a few will survive, but I expect the Corpus Christi's skyline will be palmy significantly differently going forward.

[necturus]

2 minutes ago, Austinpalm said:

I was there in late March for a very quick trip. What I did notice was that all the black mangrove in Oso bay were fried.  I'm sure some will return from the roots, but in my mind it got very cold if it was lower than 23F (approximate hardiness of black mangrove) out in the bay. I would expect it was at least 5 degree F colder on land, but I could be wrong. I did see many W. robusta with crown collapse.  I'm sure a few will survive, but I expect the Corpus Christi's skyline will be palmy significantly differently going forward.

Thanks, Clay. TAMU is clearly a really special microclimate that doesn't reflect the rest of Corpus, so I am hopefully the trees might not be completely dead. An island + multi-story buildings surrounding the plants. I think I've shared pictures on here before - massive Ficus benghalensis, F. religiosia, huge Plumeria, Ceiba, etc. I am sure in the very least there will be significant dieback.

[Teegurr]

10 hours ago, NBTX11 said:

Should there be a small dot over downtown San Antonio making it a 9b, the Riverwalk in particular. 

Yes, there should. I just didn't have confirmation from someone - I didn't think about that too much, but yeah, that should be 9b.