USATODAY.com – Report: Global warming could devastate U.S. wineries
Areas suitable for growing premium wine grapes could be reduced by 50% — and possibly as much as 81% — by the end of this century, according to a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The paper indicates increasing weather problems for grapes in such areas as California’s Napa and Sonoma valleys. The main problem: An increase in the frequency of extremely hot days.
A thousand years ago when Viking explorers arrived on the coasts of eastern Canada and New England they named the region Vinland, a designation that has perplexed many historians since grapes are uncommon there now. The weather was warmer then, however.
In Medieval times there were vineyards in England that were later knocked out by a colder period known as the Little Ice Age. Now, wine grapes are being grown in England again.