UNH Scientist - Biological Spring Now 1 Week Out Of Synch With Equinox

[hatrack]

The sun will still cross the equator on March 20th marking the vernal equinox and the official start of spring, but Mother Nature is increasingly getting a jumpstart on the celestial movements. Over the last 150 years, scientific measurements show that events signifying the beginning of spring have all shifted.

These events now happen about a week earlier on average in the northeast United States, according to a new report, Evidence of Early Spring, from the group Clean Air-Cool Planet (CA-CP), which today announced the new, first day for "natural spring," March 13. The group, along with University of New Hampshire climate scientist Cameron Wake, Tim Flannery, author of the book The Weather Makers, and professor David Wolfe of Cornell University, conducted a call-in press conference today to discuss the issue and announce spring's new "arrival." "All of the major indicators of climate here in the Northeast, from temperature and length of growing season, to lake ice-out and lilac bloom and apple blossom time, are showing that spring is at least a week earlier now than it was in1850," said Adam Markham, executive director at CA-CP. "

"Of course, the sun will still cross the equator on the 20th, marking the vernal equinox, but biological spring has changed due to global warming and that's threatening to put ecosystems badly out of synch," Markham said. Evidence of Early Spring follows a comprehensive report issued collaboratively in March 2005 by CA-CP and Wake entitled Indicators of the Climate Change in the Northeast, which looked at 11 different physical and biological markers of the changing climate in the region.

Indicators of the Climate Change in the Northeast noted that the average Northeast winter temperature has increased 4.4 degrees Fahrenheit from 1970 to 2000. During that same period, the growing season increased by 15 days and days with snow on the ground decreased by 16. For the coastal parts of the region, sea surface temperatures and levels have also risen.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/UNH_Scientist_Announce_New_Beginning_of_Natural_Spring.html

[Warpy]

1. I've certanly noticed it here in central NM

The rows of flowering trees on a local road used to burst into blossom the third week of March when I first moved here 10 years ago.

This year, it was March 10.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. Effects on the East Coast have been complex

The autumn begins and finishes later; this past one, by four weeks.

It stays warm later.

We've had an early cold jetstream for most of the past ten years, leaving us with several ice and snowstorms on or about December 5th.

There is usually a period right after Christmas where a warm Pacific jetstream dominates weather for as long as 6 weeks; it was especially strong this year.

The weather turns wintry late in the season, as it did again this year; snow in the first week of April has been fairly common, compared to long-term trends.

Then, in mid-April, the temperature soars. One year (2002?), we had a light snow on April 2nd, and our first 90°F day on April 15th.

I suspect this strongly patterned behavior comes from some emerging, climate-dominating, Arctic weather system.

--p!

[One_Life_To_Give]

3. Is 1850 a fair starting point?

As 1850 is about the end of the Little Ice Age. Referencing from then to today doesn't seem to provide a good basis for an argument. Wouldn't using 1870 to present make a stronger case. Particularly since the last quoted para implies the bulk of the change has taken place since 1970. Or perhaps compare the results from the Little Ice Age to 1970 Vs. 1970 to present?