Thirty-year average coldest temperatures are rising across the country, including in Miami, a new analysis found.
Why it matters: Such a shift can affect us in a variety of ways — changing which plants and insects thrive in our neighborhoods, for example, amid other impacts of climate change.
Much of the U.S. was categorized into warmer plant hardiness zones with the latest USDA map update in 2023, as Axios' Jacque Schrag reported.
Driving the news: The 30-year average coldest temperature for 1995-2024 compared to 1951-1980 was higher in 97% of the 243 locations analyzed by Climate Central, a research and communications group.
Among the locations with an increase, the coldest annual temperature was 3.7°F higher on average.
Zoom in: Miami saw a +4.6°F increase in average coldest temperature between the two 30-year periods.
What to watch: The group also used climate modeling and NASA data to project future change between the 30-year period of 1995-2024 and the 2036-2065 period.
It predicts that the 30-year average coldest temperature will rise in every single one of the 243 locations analyzed between those periods, with an average gain of 5.6°F.