Global Warming and the grape

[cellophane flowers]

just seen on the local news:

http://www.ktvu.com/globalwarming/9494441/detail.html

"Areas suitable for growing premium wine grapes could be reduced by 50 percent -- and possibly as much as 81 percent -- by the end of this century, according to a study 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, according to Noah Diffenbaugh of the department of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue University."

of interest to me:

"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."

why? cause LI is not that far from New England, just across the 'pond' as a matter of fact.