An Early Spring

I found a few daffodils coming up the other day. The plants are in an exposed location, so they've been experiencing the full brunt of our southern Minnesota winter. The first emergence of daffodils signals the official start of spring (at least from the perspective of daffodil biology).

This year I first noticed the sprouts on 29-Feb-2016. Daffodils emerge by the end of February in the UK, which has far milder winters than we are used to in southern Minnesota. I haven't been able to find records for local daffodil emergence, but given how warm it has been getting, I would be very surprised if this was within the range of normal emergence dates for around here.


References:

• climatechangegraphs.blogspot.com/2014/07/global-surface-temperature-anomaly-1996.html
• www.dailymail.co.uk/home/gardening/article-1156287/Daffodil-ightful-Cheer-daffs--sure-sign-worst-springs-corner.html