Zones shifting northward as climate changes

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Holly and Justin Jones are owners of Evergreen Hill, a farm situated on the Henry-Washington-county line in the heart of southeast Iowa. It's been a family farm since 1877, with the ownership jumping to their branch of the family tree in 2021.

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Dean Colony of Colony Acres Family Farm checks his pumpkin crop July 9 in North Liberty, Iowa, looking at plant health as well as what insects are on the plants and flowers. He grows about 40 varieties of the fall-harvest gourds.

Jim Slosiarek/The Cedar Rapids Gazette

Olivia Cohen Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Iowa – A few years ago Holly Jones started studying the micro-climate and the topography on her family farm near Crawfordsville, about 40 miles south of Iowa City, Iowa. Jones said learning more about the landscape of her fifth-generation flower farm helped her recognize some of the ways weather and climate change could affect her operation.

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Using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Climate Central analyzes how warming temperatures might change growing conditions across the country. Researchers found that if climate change continues unabated, 90 percent of their studied cities will shift to warmer planting zones by mid-century, including Madison, Wisconsin.

Olivia Cohen is with the Cedar Rapids Gazette in Iowa. This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation.