As If You Need Confirmation, Spring Has Arrived In Vermont. And It's Early

 You see the daffodils and the crocuses, the greening grass and the buds on the trees. 

Areas shaded in red are where early plants like 
honeysuckle and lilac have started to leaf out. The red
means spring is arriving much earlier than normal
this year. As you can see, it's gotten into Vermont
as of this morning, though the mountains and
Northeast Kingdom are still waiting on this.

Spring seems to have arrived in Vermont. 

But if you need the official word on the precise arrival of spring, the National Phenology Network is here for your service. 

As I've written before, this organization has what is know as the first spring leaf index.  It indicates when particularly early species - specifically honeysuckle and lilac - start to sprout leaves.

And, as of today, these plants have started to leaf out in the Champlain Valley low elevations in southwestern Vermont and parts of the Lower Connecticut River valley.  Those leaves haven't quite appeared yet in the Green Mountains, north central and northeast Vermont. 

  By the National Phenology Network's (USNPN) estimation via the spring leaf index, the season is as much as  two weeks earlier than the long term average here in Vermont.  

Despite two spring snowstorm and temperatures that have only on a few occasional broken past 60 degrees, it's been pretty consistently warmer than average in Vermont all year, including in March and so far in April. 

Which has kept spring ahead of schedule around here.  On average, according the Network, a spring this early happens once in every four or five years, give or take. 

It's not just us.  Spring has been way ahead of schedule for most of the nation east of the Plains. According to USNPN: 

"The Sacramento Valley. coastal areas of northern California, Oregon, and Washington, and parts of the Great Plains and southern Midwest are seeing the earliest spring leaf out on record."

The exceptions to the early spring trend are in southern Texas and Florida where early spring leaf out hits in late winter.  It was a little cool down there at that point so they were slightly late

Of course, those far southern areas are now in full summer leaf.  

Over the next several days, temperatures across Vermont are forecast to be more or less near normal for this time of year. (Highs in the 50s, give or take, lows near or somewhat above freezing).

That means spring will continue to advance, but probably at a gradual pace. The Northern Vermont away from Lake Champlain might end up having an early spring, by USNPN standards, but maybe not quite as early as the banana belt of Vermont. 

This early spring obviously doesn't mean you can put out your tomatoes just yet. We have more frost to get through yet. Maybe even snow, who knows?

It's greening up out there, and it's nice to now see another color in the outdoor spectrum other than brown and gray.  I can get used to the increasing greenery out there.