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Climate Change Pressures Heat Zones (Map Service)

Published by U.S. Forest Service | Department of Agriculture | Catalog Last Checked: August 01, 2026 at 05:01 AM | Dataset Last Updated: October 27, 2025
The maps and tables presented here represent potential variability of projected climate change across the conterminous United States during three 30-year periods in this century and emphasizes the importance of evaluating multiple signals of change across large spatial domains. Maps of growing degree days, plant hardiness zones, heat zones, and cumulative drought severity depict the potential for markedly shifting conditions and highlight regions where changes may be multifaceted across these metrics. In addition to the maps, the potential change in these climate variables are summarized in tables according to the seven regions of the fourth National Climate Assessment to provide additional regional context. Viewing these data collectively further emphasizes the potential for novel climatic space under future projections of climate change and signals the wide disparity in these conditions based on relatively near-term human decisions of curtailing (or not) greenhouse gas emissions. More information available at https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/pubs/rmap/rmap_nrs9.pdf. This dataset represents heat zones, or the mean number of days over 30 C, in 4 time periods (1980-2009, 2010-2039, 2040-2069, and 2070-2099), using two emissions scenarios (RCP 4.5 and 8.5, the medium and high scenarios, respectively).

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