Poem: "Wintersmoon"
Jan. 8th, 2024 12:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem was written outside the regular prompt calls. It fills the "Wintersmoon" square in my 1-1-24 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles.
Warning: This poem and its notes contain graphic description of climate change.
"Wintersmoon"
In the past,
the wintersmoon
would have glittered
on snow spread like
sequined silk
but tonight,
the ground is
soft brown mud,
humped in rows
like corduroy pants
rucked up around
the field's knees.
Yet now and then,
the wintersmoon still
finds a puddle cupped
against the cool ground,
and makes it gleam
like a forgotten sequin.
* * *
Notes:
Climate change is altering the seasons.
This was the first map that showed really dramatic changes in hardiness zone bands.
Arbor Day Foundation Changes in Climate Zones Map 1990-2006
While I was looking for that, I found this new article. Here are two hardiness zone maps from there. In the 1976-2005 map, my part of central Illinois is Zone 6a (dark green). To the north, a small corner is Zone 5a (dark blue), while nearly half the state is Zone 5b (light blue). To the south, a band shows Zone 6b (light green). At the very tip is a tiny patch of Zone 7a (olive). In the 1991-2020 map, my part of central Illinois is now right on the line between Zone 6a (dark green) and Zone 6b (light green). Effingham, which is not a lengthy drive south of us, is solidly in Zone 6b (light green). Below that, Zone 7a (olive) has gobbled up a substantial swath of the southern end. Zone 7b (yellow-green) is listed in the key but not visible on the map. However, there's a boggy bit of the "fork" at the bottom of the state that's always quite a bit warmer than the rest, so likely Zone 7b (yellow-green) is lurking in there too small to see.
Illinois Plant Hardiness Zone Maps 1976-2005 and 1991-2020
This map dates from May 1, 1967 from a Harvard Arboretum article. In it, Illinois has three climate zones. To the north, nearly half the state is Zone 4 (gray-blue). In the middle, a wide band is Zone 5 (red); and in the south, the tip is Zone 6 (yellow). There is no Zone 7 (medium blue); that's way down in Tennessee. While it is not divided, I suspect that may have been the equivalent of Zone 5a, particularly if you follow the curve of that southerly dip.
Hardiness Zones of the United States and Canada May 1 1967
This map dates from July 1, 1948 from a Medium article. In it, Illinois has three climate zones. To the north, nearly half the state is Zone 4 (navy blue). In the middle, a rather narrow band is Zone 5 (orange); and in the south, the tip is Zone 6 (yellow). There is no Zone 7 (purple); that's way down in Tennessee. While it is not divided, I suspect that may have been the equivalent of Zone 5a. This is very similar to the 1967 map.
Hardiness Zones of the United States and Canada July 1 1948
Here is the earliest known hardiness map from 1927, in black and white. Illinois has a whopping SIX zones. It goes from Zone 2 in the very northwest tip through probably Zone 5 (but not all that far from Zone 4) in my part of central Illinois to Zone 7 in the southern tip. Most of the state is Zone 4 / Zone 5.
Hardiness Zones of the United States 1927 from Arnold Arboretum in Harvard Arboretum article
This is the first known plant hardiness map, published in the Manual of Cultivated Trees and Shrubs Hardy in North America in 1927.
Here is a broad look at the shifting baseline of temperatures over a century:
US Annual Temperatures Map 1901-2020
So in my parents' time, this area may have been Zone 5a. When I was growing up, it was Zone 5b and pretty stable. I noticed the change to 6a years before even the Arbor Day Foundation mentioned it. And in the last few years I've been wondering because the winters have been so much warmer yet again. Admittedly we got a polar vortex last year and it dropped below zero briefly (the coldest recorded in the state was -8°F) but mostly it was warm. This year, it barely snowed in December; we almost made it to January without any.
When I was little, it started snowing in late November or early December -- sometimes October -- and we saw the ground again in March. Sometimes there was a brief thaw in January or February and a patch of ground would show through. The drift behind (east of) the garage got tall enough to reach the roof. That was our snowcave drift; Dad and I would hollow it out and sit in there. We have pictures. That lasted while I was little, but then the snow dwindled. Now there are barely drifts anywhere in winter. It still can close roads, but mostly it doesn't. I remember my mother telling a story about a year from her childhood in Tennessee that Christmas was so warm, they went out to the swimming hole and took a dip. That would've been Zone 7 or maybe Zone 6 since Tennessee has both. And my part of Illinois is now Zone 6 and not that far from Zone 7.
I'm kinda freaking out here. I need to go back and reconsider my plant shopping. At least the new map came up before I ordered anything for spring. As much as possible, I try to pick plants with at least a zone on either size of their range from where I am. So from Zone 6a, I wanted plants that could survive Zone 5 cold and Zone 7 heat, both of which we could realistically get. The cold-adapted plants are starting to gasp in the heat while the heat-adapted plants still die in cold snaps. >_< It's very frustrating. But is Zone 7 enough of a buffer to the south? I'm thinking maybe not anymore, and very little can span Zone 5-8. Plus trees can live a lot longer than humans.
Well, now I know why everything was all mud in freaking January.
janetmiles.Warning: This poem and its notes contain graphic description of climate change.
"Wintersmoon"
In the past,
the wintersmoon
would have glittered
on snow spread like
sequined silk
but tonight,
the ground is
soft brown mud,
humped in rows
like corduroy pants
rucked up around
the field's knees.
Yet now and then,
the wintersmoon still
finds a puddle cupped
against the cool ground,
and makes it gleam
like a forgotten sequin.
* * *
Notes:
Climate change is altering the seasons.
This was the first map that showed really dramatic changes in hardiness zone bands.
Arbor Day Foundation Changes in Climate Zones Map 1990-2006
While I was looking for that, I found this new article. Here are two hardiness zone maps from there. In the 1976-2005 map, my part of central Illinois is Zone 6a (dark green). To the north, a small corner is Zone 5a (dark blue), while nearly half the state is Zone 5b (light blue). To the south, a band shows Zone 6b (light green). At the very tip is a tiny patch of Zone 7a (olive). In the 1991-2020 map, my part of central Illinois is now right on the line between Zone 6a (dark green) and Zone 6b (light green). Effingham, which is not a lengthy drive south of us, is solidly in Zone 6b (light green). Below that, Zone 7a (olive) has gobbled up a substantial swath of the southern end. Zone 7b (yellow-green) is listed in the key but not visible on the map. However, there's a boggy bit of the "fork" at the bottom of the state that's always quite a bit warmer than the rest, so likely Zone 7b (yellow-green) is lurking in there too small to see.
Illinois Plant Hardiness Zone Maps 1976-2005 and 1991-2020
This map dates from May 1, 1967 from a Harvard Arboretum article. In it, Illinois has three climate zones. To the north, nearly half the state is Zone 4 (gray-blue). In the middle, a wide band is Zone 5 (red); and in the south, the tip is Zone 6 (yellow). There is no Zone 7 (medium blue); that's way down in Tennessee. While it is not divided, I suspect that may have been the equivalent of Zone 5a, particularly if you follow the curve of that southerly dip.
Hardiness Zones of the United States and Canada May 1 1967
This map dates from July 1, 1948 from a Medium article. In it, Illinois has three climate zones. To the north, nearly half the state is Zone 4 (navy blue). In the middle, a rather narrow band is Zone 5 (orange); and in the south, the tip is Zone 6 (yellow). There is no Zone 7 (purple); that's way down in Tennessee. While it is not divided, I suspect that may have been the equivalent of Zone 5a. This is very similar to the 1967 map.
Hardiness Zones of the United States and Canada July 1 1948
Here is the earliest known hardiness map from 1927, in black and white. Illinois has a whopping SIX zones. It goes from Zone 2 in the very northwest tip through probably Zone 5 (but not all that far from Zone 4) in my part of central Illinois to Zone 7 in the southern tip. Most of the state is Zone 4 / Zone 5.
Hardiness Zones of the United States 1927 from Arnold Arboretum in Harvard Arboretum article
This is the first known plant hardiness map, published in the Manual of Cultivated Trees and Shrubs Hardy in North America in 1927.
Here is a broad look at the shifting baseline of temperatures over a century:
US Annual Temperatures Map 1901-2020
So in my parents' time, this area may have been Zone 5a. When I was growing up, it was Zone 5b and pretty stable. I noticed the change to 6a years before even the Arbor Day Foundation mentioned it. And in the last few years I've been wondering because the winters have been so much warmer yet again. Admittedly we got a polar vortex last year and it dropped below zero briefly (the coldest recorded in the state was -8°F) but mostly it was warm. This year, it barely snowed in December; we almost made it to January without any.
When I was little, it started snowing in late November or early December -- sometimes October -- and we saw the ground again in March. Sometimes there was a brief thaw in January or February and a patch of ground would show through. The drift behind (east of) the garage got tall enough to reach the roof. That was our snowcave drift; Dad and I would hollow it out and sit in there. We have pictures. That lasted while I was little, but then the snow dwindled. Now there are barely drifts anywhere in winter. It still can close roads, but mostly it doesn't. I remember my mother telling a story about a year from her childhood in Tennessee that Christmas was so warm, they went out to the swimming hole and took a dip. That would've been Zone 7 or maybe Zone 6 since Tennessee has both. And my part of Illinois is now Zone 6 and not that far from Zone 7.
I'm kinda freaking out here. I need to go back and reconsider my plant shopping. At least the new map came up before I ordered anything for spring. As much as possible, I try to pick plants with at least a zone on either size of their range from where I am. So from Zone 6a, I wanted plants that could survive Zone 5 cold and Zone 7 heat, both of which we could realistically get. The cold-adapted plants are starting to gasp in the heat while the heat-adapted plants still die in cold snaps. >_< It's very frustrating. But is Zone 7 enough of a buffer to the south? I'm thinking maybe not anymore, and very little can span Zone 5-8. Plus trees can live a lot longer than humans.
Well, now I know why everything was all mud in freaking January.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-01-08 06:36 pm (UTC)We were born right at the end of the snown snaps, and the very beginning of the changes. I remember the same things as a child you do. It's frustrating to see humans sawing off the branches we're all standing on. *sighs*
-T~
(no subject)
Date: 2024-01-09 07:56 pm (UTC)We moved here only a decade after they moved to Indy. I have never once seen the Lake freeze that way, though the warning signs are still there.
Yes ...
Date: 2024-01-09 09:19 pm (UTC)