Different specialists unequally define the boundaries of spring, the time of its beginning.

These days, it feels like real spring! The air is still cool, but the morning meets us with bright sunlight, the clouds have become light, and their outlines are more distinct. From the bright sun and the tinkling of tits, the mood is not wintery at all!
According to the calendar, spring has long since changed its winter, it began on March 1. Astronomical spring came on March 20, during the vernal equinox, when the night was equal in duration with the day.
Now we are looking forward to climatic, or meteorological spring: its offensive is determined by the date when the average daily air temperature is stable above 0 ° C.

The daytime temperature is already above zero, everywhere thawed patches are visible. But at night the cold takes revenge. The date of the temperature transition is obtained as a result of calculations, therefore, the meteorologists can say only after a while that the positive temperatures have become stable. In different years, the dates of the meteorological spring are different. There were years when the temperature boundary, and hence the beginning of spring, was registered very early: February 4 – in 2002, February 22 – in 1990, but the average long-term date of its occurrence in our region is March 20.

Phenological spring coincides with meteorological spring in general, but some of its signs appear earlier: there are parts of thawed earth in open places, circular thawed patches are formed around the trees, first rooks arrive. Every year we observe the onset of the same phenomena on different dates. The difference in the arrival time of the phenological and meteorological spring is sometimes 2-4 weeks. This is normal.
From the memoirs of the employee of the reserve Tatyana Andreevna Demina, who came to work in the Prioksko-Terrasny reserve 50 years ago: “April 6, 1968 was dry, fairly warm weather and the pond in the town of Danki was completely cleared of ice. But then, starting from the first decade of April, cold strong winds blew, and, in clear sunny weather. The warm, spring-quiet, sunny weather was established only towards the end of the last decade. ”
In 2016-2017 the phenological spring came in the first 5 days of April. And this year it’s too early to make an accurate forecast. Nature can have its own surprises!