SPRING
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze
William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)
This year Wordsworth would have been wandering
in January as many plants, including daffodils, were
fooled by the mild weather and woke up early. If the
weather and the plants are doing their own thing,
what decides when spring actually begins?
Changes of season are measured in different ways.
An astronomical season is calculated based on the
tilt of the Earth relative to the Sun. Spring starts
when the Sun strikes directly onto the equator;
when day and night are of equal length (equinox).
This varies each year so that the starting date for
spring falls on different days in different years.
This year spring in the Northern Hemisphere
begins on the 20th March and ends 19th June.
Meteorologists require consistent data between the
years to enable them to analyse patterns, therefore
meteorological seasons have set start and finish
dates. Spring in the Northern Hemisphere runs from
March 1st - May 31st.
In the traditional Chinese calendar, the spring
season lies between the end of winter (Feb 4th)
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and the beginning of summer (5th May), with the
equinox roughly in the middle. Chinese New Year
celebrations actually mark the beginning of the spring
season. In subarctic areas, spring may not arrive until
May or even June, while of course spring in the Southern
Hemisphere runs from September to November.
In the Celtic tradition, spring is based solely on
daylight and the strength of the noonday sun.
Beginning in early February (near Imbolc) and
continuing until early May (Beltane) this is closer
to the way ecologists mark the year. They allow for
natural variations in climate by dividing the year into
six seasons with no fixed dates. The prevernal (prespring) season lies between winter (hibernal) and
spring (v