You’ll notice another story in today’s TurfPro about a high-profile stadium switching from a natural turf surface to a hybrid pitch.

This time it’s in Russia with Spartak Moscow’s ground, which is being used as a venue for the World Cup next year, opting to replace its traditional pitch with a SISGrass surface. That makes it four 2018 World Cup stadiums which the company has refitted now.

Closer to home and in recent times there have been various high-profile rugby clubs who’ve made the switch, as well lower and non-league football teams who’ve felt that natural grass is no longer a suitable option for their needs.

And now last week a report from the Royal Horticultural Society emerged saying that in the coming years increasing numbers of households will be ripping up their natural lawns and replacing them with synthetic surfaces due the effects of climate change.

Entitled Gardening in a Changing Climate, the report talks of a North / South UK split in predicted weather patterns of the future which they believe will lead to a geographical dichotomy.

You can download the full report to read for yourself from the RHS website, but in summary the report authors believe it is possible that in the north of the UK the combination of increasing temperatures and rainfall is extending the growing season, whereas the extent to which the growing season can extend in the southern regions is limited by an increasingly dry climate.

Based on average temperature and precipitation maps, Northampton appears to be roughly located on the boundary between the warmer and drier south of England and the cooler and wetter north.

This geographical split which the report foresees led to some starkly different reporting in the media last week. The Independent chose to headline their article "UK garden lawns will be replaced by synthetic grass due to climate change, predicts Royal Horticultural Society" with The Times going for a similar "Climate change will put the lawn out to grass, says RHS."

Meanwhile Yahoo News chose to emphasise that change could mean an increase in mowing, with the Yorkshire Post going so far as to headline their piece "Why Yorkshire gardeners will now have to mow all year long".

I guess this illustrates how the whole notion of climate change is still argued over and interpreted in various ways by individuals with different agendas.

One thing which does appear to be indisputable though from the point of view of turf professionals, is that the weather is clearly one of the most important factors in how they go about tending to their surfaces.

So will we, as the RHS predict, begin to see a situation where mowing seasons are noticeably extended in the North?

If the South does become hotter and drier, will artificial lawns and surfaces indeed become more common sights?

My gut feeling frankly is probably not. I have just returned from visiting family in California, a state which until very recently has been technically living under drought conditions for more than a decade. So yes, you do see more artificial surfaces outside homes and in public green spaces than one is used to in the UK. But more so, you mainly see different, more drought-tolerant varieties of grass used. Bermuda grasses and the like.

They look slightly different to what we're used to - but they still need mowing and cultivating!

Natural turf still has very passionate advocates amongst professionals, players and the public. If varieties of plant have to change from what we’ve been traditionally used to, so be it. Turf professionals are renowned for their adaptably.