Two Government Agencies. Two Different Climate Maps. by FiveThirtyEight

This story is about how two government agencies differ in their approaches to mapping where differ plant species can survive in which parts of the country. The USDA is constantly improving their version of the map to give the best information possible to farmers, while NOAA is sticking to its original methodology so it can better track how climate change is affecting plant life over time. The story shows these two maps and highlights where they diverge — but what's more interesting from a graphics perspective is how it shows the projected change in these maps. After doing some geospatial analysis, Rachael was able to map ribbons of temperature zone change across the country: a beautiful but haunting portrait of warming creeping across the landscape.