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I once took a vacation to an area just south of Los Angeles. I expected to encounter some brutal heat, as this was Southern California in August. To my surprise, the temperatures were actually a bit cooler than they are in Connecticut during August! I asked some locals about the average summer temperatures, and they confirmed that 80’s were common, 90’s occasional, and very rarely did it reach or exceed 100 degrees. This was nearly identical to southern New England.

What surprised me the most though was that just about all the plant life was completely different than it is out east. Even the grass was different, favoring a southern, heat loving variety known as Bermudagrass. In fact, people in this area had tried unsuccessfully to maintain Kentucky Bluegrass ( a common New England area lawn grass). They simply couldn’t get it to survive the climate.

So, what was going on?

The main climatic difference between SoCal and New England is the winter. While it drops to sub-zero temperatures here, it only dips into the 50’s out there. This allows the heat loving grasses and plants to survive through the year, giving them the opportunity to take over completely when the 90 degree temperatures hit in the summer. The cooler grasses like Kentucky Bluegrass die off and the Bermudagrass takes over.

The freezing temperatures in the winter here prevent things like Bermudagrass from ever taking over, so we are left with a grass that can tolerate the winters, but not the 90 degree plus heat. Unfortunately, every plant has an upper limit to the temperatures it can withstand no matter how much effort is put into maintenance.

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Climate Zones