Hello Jerry,
I live 45 miles NW of New Orleans. My house has an elevation of 15' above sea level. Ponchatoula has a latitude of about 30 deg, Northridge of about 34 deg. This area is zone 8b/9 here. I live on what we call the north shore of Lake Ponchatrain. We live about 10 miles from the lake. Last winter we had probably 50 nights where the temp was around 25 deg F. There were more nights below freezing than any in the last 20 years. No nights below 20 deg F though. Over the last 10 years we have usually had a couple of nights where the temp was below 20 deg F. In 1989 the temp her dropped to 7 deg F on Christmas Eve. the winter nights in Ponchatoula average 10 to 15 deg warmer than in New Orleans. We had close to 60 days where the temp was above 100 deg F last summer. It was the hottest summer here since 1983. Your winter days and nights are usually warmer and our summer days and night are usually hotter. Now if you head to the Salton area, I would say it is much warmer there than in Louisiana. Plus the humidity here is enough to swim in.
