You identified two much better indicators: horticulture and entomology. Tracking changes in these over time are much more reliable and have the advantage of being experiential at the same time: anyone who cares to look can notice the arrival of bugs that had previously only been known farther south, or advanced blooming dates for indicator plant species.

Perhaps the best thing to do is jettison the worn-out terminology of climate change and talk about habitat change, substantiated by experience-able phenomena that are less inherently variable and resist confusion with less relevant indicators, like weather is for climate.