As another icy blast hits the UK from the east, it seems that spring is reluctant to arrive. The daffodils are coming out and some ponds have frogspawn but is it officially spring?
Statistics show that a lot of people, perhaps wishing to be cheered up, are turning to the world wide web for information. It seems there are two possible answers, yes or no, depending on whether you are a meteorologist or an astronomer.
Meteorologists like to split the year into four equal three-monthly parts, so winter starts at the beginning of December and ends on the last day of February, allowing spring to begin on 1 March.
Astronomers measure the seasons by calculating Earth’s orbit in relation to the sun, so to them this year the season begins on 20 March, the spring equinox, when day and night are the same length.
Meteorologists, to whom comparing weather statistics with past years is a vital part of their trade, reject this arrangement. The equinoxes do not arrive on the same day each year and so the length of the astronomical seasons can vary, making year-to-year comparisons of weather data impossible. So you can take your pick or wait to see the first bumblebee.
