News Brief by Kip Hansen — 24 May 2024
There has been a lot of silly nonsense in the mass media about Early Springs. Concerns that the season, Spring, has been coming days or even, in some cases. weeks earlier than “it did before”. Worries have been expressed that the timing of natural events, such as bird migrations and the emergence of their food species will become out of synchronization — migrating birds may arrive before their favorite bugs are available to eat in the North – or before the nectar flowers hummingbirds need for nourishment bloom.
Almost every mass media outlet has banged on about how earlier Spring has lengthened the allergy season – and, that is correct: trees, grasses, weeds, flowers all bloom and spread pollen in accordance with the seasons. Naturally, if Spring temperatures come a week earlier than the oft-touted “long term average”, then plants will act accordingly, and off they go.
This image is from the ever-alarmist Climate Central for the year 2020. Of course, keeping in line with the editorial narratives of Climate Alarmism, the Media seldom, if ever, mention the positive side of Early Spring. Early Springs and later Falls mean a longer growing seasons and that means more food. In many cases, agriculturalists (farmers, ranchers, orchardists, truck farmers) are able to get two crops out of a single field in the same year. Dairy farmers in my area, most of whom grow their own feed, are getting an extra cutting of hay. In double-cropping systems, an extra three or four weeks in the growing season can make a huge difference.
Journalists for national and international newspapers and broadcast news are, in a general sense, “city people”. They don’t live on the land and are easily led astray about things in the natural world. Even if they are outdoor hobbyists or enthusiasts, they just don’t get it. The natural world has its own timing, its own cycles, and its own methods of keeping itself going. If not, we wouldn’t be here.
PHENOLOGY — which is the “the study of the timing and cyclical patterns of events in the natural world, particularly those related to the annual life cycles of plants, animals, and other living things” — can enlighten us to the true situation. We’re in luck, in the United States, we have the marvelous USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) [which has supplied our news for the day], whose staff members are employees of the University of Arizona, and is sponsored by the University of Arizona, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (both of which are sections of the U.S. Department of the Interior), the National Science Foundation (an independent U.S. Federal agency), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
And the incredible iconic Saguaro Cactus? It is in bloom!
Finally…Spring has come to Arizona, finally.
This is the “Spring Leaf Index Anomaly” – it shows an index of the timing of Spring Leaf Out as a proxy for Arrival of Spring. How many days “earlier” than the long-term average or how many days “later” than the long-term average.
It is quite interesting. The three neutral colors (very pale beige, white, and very pale blue) show where Spring has arrived well within the average expected timing. The deep reddish/brownish, though quite dark, represents where Spring arrived 10-14-21 days sooner than average, and the blues mean that Spring was late.
Florida, southern Texas, coastal Gulf states and the majority of the Intermountain West have had a later than usual Spring this year.
The general public has been repeatedly informed in the press that the waters of the Gulf of Mexico are warmer than usual – much warmer, so they say.
I would have thought that all that hot water would have forced an Early Spring on the Gulf Coast – but, apparently Nature didn’t agree.
The Saguaro Cactus know when Spring has arrived but not by looking at the calendar:
Arizona’s saguaro cactus bloom is running four weeks late this year.
[ Due to an editing error, the above image was missing from the original post for the first few hours – kh ]
Just to make comparison easy, I put 2024 side-by-side with 2020:
In 2020, the pattern was almost a mirror image of 2024. Only the mid-Atlantic states are early in both years.
Bottom Line:
In a world that has slightly warmed, coming up out of the Little Ice Age (finally), Spring comes when it will, different every year.
It would be no surprise, at least in North America, if in general, Spring is arriving a few days earlier as the North American climate gently warms a bit:
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Author’s Comment:
The fears that somehow Nature will get out of sync with itself are a dystopian fantasy. It is surely possible that some individual anomalously-timed season in some region or locality could take place and play havoc, temporarily, with some of the plants and animals. Looking at the long-term climate records, for what they are worth, reveals that there have been periods of rapidly changing temperatures, and certainly rapidly changing precipitation regimes, at various times and places which must have changed things up for the living inhabitants. That, my friends, as they say, is life.
Much of the beauty of the world comes from the changes we can see in the passing of the seasons, particularly, but not limited to, areas that have a full four-season cycle, such as I have in the Central Hudson Valley of New York State. I really missed the seasons during the decades I spent in the tropics.
Thanks for reading.
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If feels like global warming is long overdue in Ireland.
Spring is late here in Colorado too with snowmelt behind schedule. On the plus side, a couple of ski resorts are still open.
Yep. It turned grey again w a cold wind.
Michael ==> I believe the long-term solution to that problem is the pub, with a cozy fire.
I bet nobody thought about that solution in Ireland. 🙂
“Still waiting for Greenhouse”
That was the website of the late John Daly, who died in 2003, if I recall. He analyzed weather data from hundreds of stations and found many whose annual average temperatures has remained unchanged for about a century such as Alice Springs
in Australia. His original website is no longer available.
Google “John Daly” . This website is memorial to him and lists all his of accomplishments.
John Lawrence Daly – Wikipedia
Still Waiting For Greenhouse (john-daly.com)
Thank you Harold, and yes, am pleased folk remember.
On my Wisconsin Uplands dairy farm, ‘spring’ is when the morel mushrooms appear. Always in May, but over 40 years the peak is almost never the same week as the year before, and the quantity is almost never the same in our several productive morel patches during the peak week. Just is. We usually get a small gang (me, significant other, daughter and husband) to do the morel hunting.
We slice and dry them for use in dishes through the year. If we wanted to sell them fresh, they would fetch about $80/# in the better Chicago restaurants. Funny thing is that (unlike buttons, portobellos, shiitakes) nobody has ever figured out how to grow them commercially despite being a valuable delicacy. Morels are like truffles—a valuable wild grown delicacy.
significant other? Sigh!
She is a devout Catholic and we are both divorced. You figure the rest.
Morels ( morilles in french ) are notoriously fickle and impossible to cultivate.
Sometimes the impossible is achieved.
Very interesting video. I did some quick research. Two different morel commercial cultivation processes have been patented—Denmark and earlier California. Unfortunately, neither has been commercialized. The video talks about commercialization ‘after the process has been automated.’ So maybe without more expensive than wild hunted?
Rud ==> My kids hunt morels in the mid-Hudson Valley and the Catskills — exact locations are secret even from me, and only shared between the three brothers. Other long-time-local families have the same arrangements — secret morel cults….
After many years, I know every foot of my farm. And eventually learned by trial and error why and where the morels will likely appear. Is oddly inverse truffle related. The peak week is simply weather dependent. Morel patches change over time (several years) for a specific reason that is easy to see out in the fields and woods—once you know the Wisconsin wild morel secret. I never explained that even to our cult.
Took about 15 years to figure it out; I just tell my morel hunting team let’s go over there, might be a new patch. Or let’s not go over there where we found a few last year, don’t think there will be any this year. And let’s not waste any time over here. Got the secret part down pat because we cannot prevent trespassing morel hunters. Wisconsin allows you to post against fall deer hunting, but not spring morel hunting.
Might pass the secret on to my daughter, although since they moved to Colorado hasn’t been on the Wisconsin May hunt once; two grade school boys before end of school year tends to tie Mom down—not to mention plane tickets much more valuable than morels. Down to Patricia and I.
I’ve looked a few times for morels in Colorado but have not been successful. Those who have been successful are secretive like they are everywhere else. So sad.
You bet, at $80/# in the fresh season lasting maybe 2 weeks. For good reason. I could teach you easily where morels are likely abundant in Colorado, but then it would not be a secret. Morel hunters are truly a hard earned secret cult.
And what is best, unlike my savant Slovak grandfather forest general summer mushroom hunter, there is no mistaking a spring morel for anything poisonous.
I might have missed my chance for morels this year. Someone told me a few grow in upper Boulder Canyon below snowline. No luck so far. It’s generally a hassle getting to burn areas.
King Boletus are a decent late summer mushroom that are easy to find in the mountains. They’re pretty distinct as far as not mistaking them for something poisonous also, but they’re not anywhere near as good as morels.
I went mushrooming on Basalt Mtn. in western Colorado a few years ago, the summer after it burned. I came across a fellow hunting commercially. He goes all over the west, to places that burned the previous year. That is where he finds morels to sell to restaurants. The mycelium must like being the first growth in the charred soil with no competition. That was the only time and place I’ve seen morels. The same places I check every year have different amounts of different species.
SK: Well known that morels like fresh burn scars every where in CONUS no matter the forest type. There is a ‘secret’ reason.
There are two other natural non-fire processes that produce similar morel results. Yellow is prevalent on my deciduous forest Wisconsin dairy farm. Took me many years to figure it out, but the results became self evident. The other (for black morels) is prevalent on my brother’s coniferous mountainous south North Carolina Appalachian retreat. I clued him in on where to look other than his long gravel driveway, about which he got very excited. He will keep my morel secret.
Like I said, morel abundance is inverse truffle related.
I find most mushrooms prefer conifer stands to the aspen stands they are intermixed with. This is at 8-11,000 feet.
Very late reply. There is very likely a basic biological reason for your astute observation. Aspen stands are actually one rooted rhizome plant with many ‘stems’ that we think of as trees. As long as the stand is healthy, morels will not like it at all. Diverse conifers in various stages of life and death will offer in places a more hospitable morel soil habitat.
Like said in a big hint earlier, morels are an inverse truffle thing. Took me about 15 years to figure it out by covering my whole farm morel hunting each May. Now I only go where they are likely. Cuts the hunt from days to hours.
Well, some people read ‘ average’ as ‘normal’ or ‘as it should be’. Anything deviating fr the average is therefor a bad thing or an indication of..mmm..something. If that ‘something’ later turns out not to happen, like a model prediction they move on to ‘something’ else. As long as it is bad..
Exactly. This also leads to misleading language of anything which deviates from the long term average as being a temperature “abnormality”, which of course is a total lie since there is nothing more normal that a value different to the mean.
Most data in a “normal distribution” is different from the mean.
bally ==> For there to be an average — just pick a number, say 27 — there had to be numbers above 27 and numbers below 27 . How wide that spread is is not revealed when a “average” is given. Thus, the “days earlier than normal’ is really “earlier than the long-term average“. Without actual numbers, dates in this case, the “average” disguises the real situation.
It may be perfectly NORMAL for Spring to come anywhere across a two month period, with the spread being either side of “average”.
This is the same foolishness that is used with temperature anomalies….pretending as if the long-term average is some important pre-set value.
I will chime in, as this is a pet peeve. There are actually three mathematical definitions of the non-mathematical concept ‘average’.
Oil depletion is always a long tailed sooner gamma. Hubert’s scary peak oil logistics curve mathematically used a median, because his logistics curve by definition isn’t Gaussian. It has fat symmetric tails. But his posited logistics curve is not how oil fields work in reality. They are all observational gamma functions. Start wrong, end wrong.
Yep. EM Smith, (Musings from the Chiefo), has done some fine posts on why there is no energy shortage.
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/there-is-no-energy-shortage/
Rud, There are not just three, but at least five “averages” that are sometimes used. In addition to the arithmetic mean, median, and mode, there are the harmonic and geometric means. There are probably others that we non-statisticians/mathematicians aren’t aware of.
The harmonic mean is useful for, among other things, meaningfully averaging velocities. The geometric mean gives “better” averages for some logarithmic/exponential data. e.g. growth rates.
If you’re curious about them, there are Wikipedia entries for both that explain them a lot better than I’m likely to do.
You are correct. I knew of them, but since they only apply in special circumstances did not include them. Econometricians do use the geometric mean in appropriate circumstances.
None of these is very useful by itself. Blackboard statisticians and computer programmers tend to assume everything is Gaussian (big problem with climate science) when, in fact, temperature profiles are seldom Gaussian. That means that a 5-number description is really needed to describe the distribution (min, max, median, 1st quartile, 3rd quartile). If you are going to use the average and standard deviation then it is required to provide the skewness and kurtosis statistical descriptors along with the average and standard deviation.
In fact, climate science doesn’t really use any of these three values. They use a mid-range value of (max + min)/2. This is an average if you have only two values in the distribution. But two values doesn’t define a distribution – so climate science assumes a Gaussian distribution when the actual daily temperature profile is sinusoidal during the day and an exponential decay at night. This would be quickly apparent if they also provided a standard deviation, kurtosis, and skewness or a 5-number description – so they totally ignore all of those statistical descriptors and only speak of the mid-range value. All the local, regional, and global averages start with garbage inputs so they all provide garbage as an output.
Enough data to do an integrative degree-day calculation has been available for more than 40 years beginning in 1980 or so and the number of stations providing sufficient data has been increasing from that point in time. This would allow just adding up the daily degree-day values for a year to get an annual total – be it on a local, regional, or global basis. NO NEED TO ASSUME A DISTRIBUTION FOR THE VALUES. NO NEED FOR A “DAILY AVERAGE”. NO SEASONAL ADJUSTMENTS. SIMPLIFIED MEASUREMENT UNCERTAINTY PROPAGATION.
Anyone familiar with forecasting knows you have to weight past values less than current values – a hardware store doesn’t order shovels based on how many were sold 20 years ago given equal weight to how many were sold yesterday. So a 40 year set of data telling us what is happening recently (compared to a loooong Earth timeline) is far more important than what happened in the last part of the 19th century or early 20th century – and a 40year integrative degree-day would be a very good metric for what is happening today.
There is absolutely NOTHING, preventing climate science from implementing a degree-day metric alongside the current “anomaly” method and procedure. SO WHY HASN’T CLIMATE SCIENCE DONE SO? Agricultural science has made the move to using integrative degree-days, HVAC engineering has made the move to using degree-days. Is climate science AFRAID of doing so? Afraid it might contradict their dooms-day forecasts of a fire-ball Earth?
No. Divide by the number of addends (n). There is also the “mid-range,” which is the range divided by two.
That is exactly the point I was going to make. Nature, including humans, already deal with significant variability. Not just in temperatures and seasons but…..many other things that quickly come to mind.
Well before the global warming mantra became dogma, population geneticists explained that wild variations in population dynamics can be caused by very simple changes in how living things interact with the environment and prey/predators. Thus a “study” showing correlation with the pet theory of the author may appear valid at one point in time but not replicable at a different time.
But that doesn’t stop environmentalists claiming even small declines or increases in some metric is caused by humans (and must be bad).
Hear hear! I blame the TV weather person.
But not you, Anthony Watts.
The Earth is still in a 2+ million-year ice age with 90% of the fresh water tied up in ice caps and 200,000 glaciers.
It is still in a cold interglacial period that alternates with very cold glacial periods.
Outside of the Tropics shelter from the cold is a necessity almost everywhere most of the year.
““…city people”. They don’t live on the land and are easily led astray…”. It’s worse than that. Weekend warriors look at the forecast and decide to go mountain biking/hiking/camping in the outdoors. They avoid the really ‘bad’ weather, and thus don’t realize what rural areas are really like. They miss the really cold mornings, and unless they’re skiers, the snowy days.
But from what they read on the internet, they think they know what the rural area is and what it needs to stay healthy. That is so incredibly irritating. I wish rural folks had the ability to govern city life for a while. I know I vote for 2-lane freeways anywhere inside a city “to protect the environment!”
On my list that I slap up here on a frequent basis:
1. More rain is not a problem.
2. Warmer weather is not a problem.
3. More arable land is not a problem.
4. Longer growing seasons is not a problem.
5. CO2 greening of the earth is not a problem.
6. There isn’t any Climate Crisis.
Longer growing seasons is number four.
Meanwhile here at Central Coast California Spring 2023/2024 is the coldest since Spring 1978/1979. Way colder than normal, not some fractional part of a degree colder. Ugh!
Sandberg ==> ah, but it is beautiful, isn’t it?
IPCC’s AR4; Chapter 10; Page 750 (pdf 4) tells us:
Temperature Extremes…
Almost everywhere, daily minimum temperatures are projected to increase faster than daily maximum temperatures, leading to a decrease in diurnal temperature range. Decreases in frost days are projected to occur almost everywhere in the middle and high latitudes, with a comparable increase in growing season length.
That’s not a recipe for a Climate Crisis
Google search on “Early Spring Climate Change” comes up with this from Britannica:
What’s the problem with an early spring?
Today there’s a lot of evidence that spring is indeed arriving earlier and earlier—and that early springs have serious consequences for the environment.
That certainly fits the definition of “The Big Lie”
Mein Kampf (1925) Described “The Big Lie” as so colossal a lie that people would not believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously”.
There is a climate crisis
It is worse than I thought
It is not a physical climate crisis
It’s a mental climate crisis
Climate Derangement Syndrome
It is living with an improving climate, such as warmer Winters and earlier Springs, yet fearig the future climate.
Insane fears after 48 years of pleasant global warming.
Half of Americans Think Climate Change Will Kill Us Soon
Half of Americans think climate change will destroy planet in their lifetime: poll (nypost.com)
It is a well known scientific fact that climate change will kill your dog. But it will not kill you — that is a leftist myth
Source
The Internet
During the Covid-19
pandemicpanic, what percentage of the public believed a Covid infection was likely to be fatal? How many believed a Covid diagnosis was a death sentence?“In 2020, the pattern was almost a mirror image of 2024.”
US climate response differs between solar minimum & La Niña versus solar maximum & El Niño.
Bob ==> That would be an interesting investigation — The effect of ENSO and the solar cycle on North American dates for Spring.
Your USCRn graph currently looks about 1deg C warm than 2005. Maybe that’s short term bump.
Greg ==> That’s a length of the data set graph, almost 20 years — long term flattish with a heck of a lot of variability.
It is what it is.
USCRN reflects a warming rate of +0.34 degrees C. per decade since 2005, faster than the average warning rate predicted in the 1979 Charney Report (+1.5 to +4.5) — a rate that has been considered “catastrophic” if it continues for centuries.
+0.3 degrees per decade It has continued since 2007 for the global average temperature, 16 years is not centuries, but reality is NOT what you are claiming in your comment.
Please try to be more accurate and less deceptive in future comments.
“Long term flattish” is a deception.
Richard ==> You are using math as if it reveals truth. It is often far better just to LOOK at a graph and see what is shows.
“Calculations of trends” on short graphs (the USCRN is only 19 years long) lead to unsupportable “facts” that mean nothing.
LOOKING at the graph (looking at the data….) shows that the USCRN bounces up and down, with up periods and down periods, at times dropping quite low ( over – 4) and other times quite high. Lots of variability, no uncertainty bars, short time period — all indicators that call for NOT calculating trends and pretending they mean something.
It is unfortunate that the graph is in anomalies — instead of just the numerical results of the calculation.
Of course, one cannot average temperatures….it is un-physical to do so, so the whole thing is a bit silly.
I’ve not paid much attention to the concept but do notice when buds freeze. This year the walnuts (non-native) did not leaf-out as usual. I think the -17°F in December is the culprit. Second time in 30 years. Secondary buds have now produced leaves.
I do have Mariposa Lilies that will show about July 4th. We will see.
I also have two clusters of “white” Lupin. They just finished blooming. The standard “purple” Lupin are not even close to bloom. The whites, being an anomaly here, I suppose I should investigate.
John ==> Are you in the US? Check with your local County Extension agent — he might have some insights. In our county, we also have Master Gardeners trained Are you in the US? by the county extension service.
I should get off my butt and investigate the white lupine. I haven’t contacted the Extension Agent — Kittitas Cty, WA.
I do have an acquaintance in the next county east that is a Master Gardener.
I’m in a zone, ecotone I think it is called, between the Ponderosa Pine forest on the dry side of the Cascades and Steppe to the east. With clear sky and 2,000 ft elevation the morning temperature can drop to freezing often.
Readers may like this site for next year:
Cherry Blossom DC Guide 2024 – DC Cherry Blossom Watch
“Early Spring” is regional.
Around here the last freeze date is April 1, and that usually holds up as a forecast. Occasionally, we get a late freeze. Nothing unusual going on around here.
Early?
Coiled spring…
Less winter. The horror!
This reminds me the world isn’t getting hotter, it’s getting less cold. That is, high temperatures aren’t getting hotter and the days aren’t getting warmer. The lows are getting warmer. It doesn’t cool as much overnight.
Some of that is because of the UHI effect, which is greatly underestimated, IMHO.
Very nice Kip. Spreading doom and gloom about the timing of the seasons is just one more crutch among many that the CAGW crowd use to gain power and control. They have no proper science supporting their CAGW hypothesis. Meaningless fear mongering is all they have left. They are losing.
Bob ==> There just hasn’t been any evidence of things getting out of sync — just vague fears — even from the National Phenology Network….but I suspect the director was asked a very specific question like “Why are some people worried about early springs?”
I have yet to see a study in which out-of-sync phenology has been found — only predicted.
When the glaciers that covered much of the northern hemisphere 10-12,000 years ago began to melt, weren’t earlier springs also becoming more prevalent? Somehow this managed to occur without the excessive consumption of fossil fuels and their associated carbon emissions, except this phenomenon is always conveniently ignored by the enviro-alarmists, and that’s the reason they continue to lose what little credibility they had from the outset.
If it can’t be blamed on sin, or on “large corporations,” climatistas won’t investigate.
Environmentalism, especially climate aspects, have devolved into a bogus religion where the tent revival preachers castigate audiences for their wickedness, holler for repentance, then go home after the show to enjoy their worldly pleasures. Albert Gore is Elmer Gantry; Greta Thunberg is Aimee Semple McPherson. They have hosts of imitators.
Long cold spring in Jamaica Queens. Last hard frost was in March but we didn’t warm up until last week.
We had a ‘very early spring’ in NW London, UK this year. Although then the second half of April was pretty cool, but no frosts, so the early flowering of fruit trees had no adverse outcomes, although the potatoes planted mid-April took a bit longer to emerge than is often the case. All growing healthily now, though.
The blackfly came to the broad beans slightly earlier than normal, but so did the ladybirds to eat them too. Nature just shifts the ‘rush hour’ for all, it doesn’t tend to ‘tell different plants to come early or late to avoid the peak’.
I’ve said many times over several years that finding signals in nature to signal planting dates might be more effective than a calendar date, but pragmatism does mean that compromises sometimes have to be made.
rtj ==> Thanks for the London report. Farmer used to wait for natural signs for planting dates….not sure which system is the safest.
Feels like later springs here on the canadian prairies.
still not here this year, cold and wet.
Anyone who worries about an early spring doesn’t have enough real worries.
I knew that “climate change” had lurched from science into mass mania long ago when the Weather Channel ran regular lectures by sad-faced professional worrier Heidi Cullen, who used to scold viewers about their wicked habits destroying the earth. At least ten years ago the Mayor of Minneapolis — or Governor of Minnesota, I can’t remember which — came on TWC to worry aloud that daffodils in city parks might start blooming “a week earlier than before” if climate change couldn’t be stopped.
Apparently, he hadn’t noticed that millions of people have decamped permanently from the Upper Midwest for a century or so, mostly to the warmer climes of Texas, Florida and California. That’s a big reason those three are now the most populous states in the country, with a combined 1/4th of the total population of the U.S.A. Ask an Angelino from Minnesota if he ever gets homesick, and he’ll look at you as if you had two heads.
If you count the number of Midwesterners who decamp for only the winter, the numbers of human “climate refugees” rival the number of migratory birds. Common parlance in Florida refers to I-75 as the “Snowbird Highway.”
I-75 runs from the Michigan/Ontario border at Sault Ste. Marie to the southern tip of Florida. Like I-95 on the east coast, southbound traffic in winter and northbound traffic in spring are heavily interspersed with large, comfy RVs, often with cars in tow. To this sailor’s eye, they look like land yachts towing dinghies.
“… daffodils in city parks might start blooming “a week earlier than before” if climate change couldn’t be stopped..”
OMG, we can’t have THAT A happen!
“Apparently, he hadn’t noticed that millions of people have decamped permanently from the Upper Midwest for a century or so, mostly to the warmer climes of Texas, Florida and California.”
One my favorite YouTube channels is that of Nick Johnson who travels America to show what much of it really looks like- the good, the bad, and particularly the ugly. In a recent one he talks about how Texas is booming.
I Found The Last Piece Of The American Dream. It’s In Texas.
I live around 60 miles North of London and for over 30 years (barn) Swallows have returned to the exact same nest in our stables in the back yard on, or around, 12 April) give or take a day or two. I remember a number of years ago there were huge storms in the Sahara and the male (always first by a few days) turned up around 16 April.
If there is CC please tell these beautiful creatures as they haven’t been informed yet!
Spring, in my over 70 years experience on the island of Great Britain, is like Easter.
Some years it is early, some years it is late, but it is never on time.
I rate spring in Toronto by when the trees come out. My marker year is 1977, May 7, a day I stood outside a hall before a final exam (engineering); the trees were only just leafing out. Nowadays I rate it by when the red buds flower (early May from 1999, when I moved to the Humber river area) I note that in the intervening period there has been a couple of times (1998) where the trees were in leaf late April or the red bud was out (2003). This year it was the earlyMay when the red bud flowered.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange, that men should fear seeing that SPRING, a necessary thing, will come when it will come.
Steve ==> Very poetic – I like it (tell me if I have failed to recognize a famous quote – – my wife is the English Lit major — I did hard Sciences and religion).