The hardiness zones of the US and China (warmest, record, temperatures)

[Bettafish]

Recently there are a couple of threads about the US and China, so I am following the fashion and open a new topic.

I am attaching the maps of hardiness zones of these two countries. What do you think?

[Bettafish]

My observations:
Although China has colder winters in terms of average temperature, its extreme temperatures are significantly milder than those of the US for the most part. Beijing and D.C. are in the same hardiness zone.

Zones 8-10 occupy the whole southern China, but in the US they can be found only on the west coast and in the deep south.
Zone 10 reaches as northern as 31 N near Chongqing in China. In the US it can be found in south California; however in the east, the northernmost border is near Orlando, 28 N.
Zone 11 is found in southern Guangdong (mainland) and Hainan island of China. Contiguous US has no Zone 11.

China has a small Zone 1 (Mohe), a sizeable Zone 2. The US has no Zone 1, almost no Zone 2.
Zone 3-4 in China has many big cities, like Harbin, Shenyang, Changchun, Urumqi. In the US there is Twin Cities.

[Bettafish]

The US has no Zone 1, almost no Zone 2.
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Oh I meant Contiguous US. Alaska does have both zones.

[nei]

The difference isn't as big when you compare the same latitude. At 30°S, most of the US South is around zone 8, while China is a mix between 8 and 9. The biggest difference is the hardiness zone increases a lot close to the coast for the US, but the marine influence isn't as big for China. The zone even goes up as you get away from the coast for China at 30°S, with one spot reaching zone 10. Much of the southern China is further south than the US deep south, more similar to Florida or South Texas.

New York City is further north than Beijing, but it has the same hardiness zone. While most of China has a bit milder extreme temperatures, Northeast China at the same latitude as New England comes out similar. But Northeast China has colder winters; New England is more variable.

[tom77falcons]

Originally Posted by Bettafish

My observations:
Although China has colder winters in terms of average temperature, its extreme temperatures are significantly milder than those of the US for the most part. Beijing and D.C. are in the same hardiness zone.

Zones 8-10 occupy the whole southern China, but in the US they can be found only on the west coast and in the deep south.
Zone 10 reaches as northern as 31 N near Chongqing in China. In the US it can be found in south California; however in the east, the northernmost border is near Orlando, 28 N.
Zone 11 is found in southern Guangdong (mainland) and Hainan island of China. Contiguous US has no Zone 11.

China has a small Zone 1 (Mohe), a sizeable Zone 2. The US has no Zone 1, almost no Zone 2.
Zone 3-4 in China has many big cities, like Harbin, Shenyang, Changchun, Urumqi. In the US there is Twin Cities.

That depends heavily on how long the periods of record, and how accurate the data to determine all time record lows. With over 1.2 billion people, I would China has some impressive urban heat island effects going on.

If you look at southeastern China, it is significantly lower in latitude than the US Southeast. What I mean is, there is more China territory below latitude 30N, than in the contiguous US. Areas below 30N are only S. Texas, Florida, and the southern tip of Louisiana. Miami and the southern tip of Florida are zone 11a and 11b.

To your point about China being milder in zones, there is a chunk of China between 30N and 35N that is in zone 8, while in the southeastern US, a chunk of inland territory like Tennessee, northern Alabama, northern Arkansas, north Texas, Oklhahoma and northern Mississippi are in zone 7b(all between 30N and 35N).

On the other hand, Beijing is barely within zone 7. From DC up along the east coast including Philadelphia, NYC, Long Island and Cape Cod are all zone 7. These areas are further north than Beijing. Only a tiny sliver of China above latitude 40N is zone 7. On the West Coast, they have zone 9 in Oregon and large areas in the west all the way north to Washingto State are in zone 8a and 8b. China has no zone 8 above latitude 40N. Above latitude 40N, the US has more area of milder zones than China.

[Superluminal]

Assuming Alaska and Hawaii are not included in the US:

Roughly two-thirds of China lie within zones 6 or lower and only about one-third in the warmer zones. And it also has quite a large chunk of its northeastern corner within the coldest zones (1-2). To me, this more than cancels out the small area of zone 11 in the far south (essentially Hainan island).
On the other hand the warm-cold split is somewhat more even for the U.S. Once you've added the south west and west coast to the "Deep South" (zones 7 and above), that is pretty much nearly half of the continental U.S. (say around 40%). The fact that the mainland U.S lacks a zone 11 is compensated for by its lack of zones 1 and 2.
Furthermore:
8 out of 10 of the U.S.'s biggest metropolitan areas are within zones 7 or higher (NYC is now borderline zones 7/8 according to this:
Hardiness zone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Interestingly, China also has 8 out of 10 of its biggest metropolitan areas within zones 7 or higher:

List of metropolitan areas in Asia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The main outliers in both countries are Chicago-land and Shenyang.

So both in both countries the most heavily populated areas are in zones 7 or above with most of the urban centres located in these warmest zones.

[canefandynasty]

Miami is 11A The Keys are 11B

[Patricius Maximus]

The differences are rather interesting. China seems to be more extreme, having more widespread warm zones as well as more widespread cold zones.