At a crowded town square in western Pennsylvania on Feb. 2, the world’s most famous groundhog—Punxsutawney Phil—did not cast a shadow, which legends say indicated that spring should arrive early this year.
While the groundhog has been known to give notoriously inaccurate predictions, this one probably wasn’t too far off base. As climate change accelerates, the signs of spring are arriving earlier in many parts of the world, from unnatural warmth to the tell-tale throat itch that accompanies seasonal allergies.
The federally funded National Phenology Network—a group the monitors the biological impacts of seasonal changes—tracks when plants sprout leaves across the US, and says on its website that spring conditions in “Des Moines, Iowa, is 20 days early, Detroit, Michigan , is 23 days early, and Cleveland, Ohio, is 16 days early compared to a long-term average of 1991-2020.”
Research has detailed the many ways that this early spring trend could throw plants, animals and seasonal pastimes out of whack. As today marks the actual first day of spring, I thought I’d point out some of the impacts of these early seasonal shifts that scientists have documented in the past few years.
Early-blooming blossoms: Starting around the end of each