Leaves emerging 3-4 weeks early in parts of US as spring warmth reshapes seasonal timing
If the temperature swings continue, so will the timing of spring. For most of the country, leaves are coming out days to weeks earlier than usual, but for a stripe across the Southeast, they are running behind.
Hummingbirds travel from Central America to the U.S. each spring, with arrival timing from March to May varying by region and weather, as temperature and wind patterns determine when they reach each area.
Temperatures have had their ups and downs this spring, rewriting the map of where leaves are budding out early, and where they are lagging behind.
The map below with data from the Spring Leaf Index from the National Phenology Network highlights a growing divide, where leaf-out is happening behind and ahead of schedule.
Because of a warm winter and recent push of warm air far northward, parts of the West, Plains and Midwest are now showing green more than a month ahead of schedule (red and pink on the map).
In the Southeast, however, spring surged early, then winter cold snapped it back. As a result, a strip of land from western Texas to Atlanta is leafing out a few days to a week late (dark blue). In the eastern Carolinas and Virginia, leaves are coming out as much as two weeks behind schedule (light blue).
A bee flies in the back light of the sun to a flowering tree. (Photo by Armin Weigel/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Washington, D.C., is between the early and late -- in other words, about normal where the Cherry Blossom Festival takes place. Local conditions there will determine the peak date.
The NPN Spring Bloom Index, which lags behind the leaves, shows flowers blooming a week or two early across most of the southern quarter of the country, except for the Southeast coast and most of Florida, where blooms are coming out later than usual.
