Signs are pointing towards an early spring but I'll believe it when I see it. Mother Nature can be spiteful when she wants to be.

Rodney

FWIW, I keep bees and they've been confused all winter. "normally," a hive or colony will transition from 60-80,000 at the hieght of summer to 10-20,000 during the winter. The queen starts laying in the "spring" to bring the number of bees up to deal with the nectar and pollen. My hives have gone down in numbers, but not to "winter" levels. As a result of this, they've eaten more of their resources than usual, so folks I know around here with bees have been feeding them. Early Spring, Late Spring, "Only the Shadow knows." :-)

I am waiting for my first reptile sightings to have a better idea. Once I see the lizards, I may be convinced. Right now I am a bit scared, really. My currants are leafing out, flower buds will be popping soon on a lot of the fruit trees and my lovage is coming up, too. My usual last frost is May 15th which is a long ways away.

I hope and pray for a late spring. 70s this early means disaster in a few weeks when flowering trees and shrubs get slammed with frosts and, worse, freezes.

signs are early spring can not be believed since birds were there already and bee are just active do to temperature. I have seen temps of 70f one week ;a week later temps are 15f and 17 at night and snow 3 ft.

we can believe the weather forecast, which shows temps in the 50s in Michigan starting Monday and at least into Friday. Right now it is snowing, 28F. The robins are commonly back here one month earlier than in the 1990s.

I guess it depends on where you live. Some places have more of a "traditional" spring, where there is a definite break between winter and summer, while others have no such thing, for example, "spring" where I live is never never "early" per se, it can only be measured as the ratio of winter days to non winter days until we get summer heat. I have seen bees buzzing about looking for food in January's past when it thaws out for a week or two.

Our late winter thaw usually happens in February however, and winter usually settles back in sometime in March and is off and on from mid-April to mid-May. Moisture from either the South West or Pacific NW often combines with cold air coming off the mountains and lands as snow rather than rain during this time, April being the 2nd snowiest month in Colorado with an average of 9 inches, behind March which averages 11.5 inches.

With the exceptionally erratic weather "pattern" caused by our distance from any significant body of water coupled with altitude and proximity to the Rocky Mountains, I have learned to appreciate any spring-like days we get knowing that more winter weather is always just looming over the horizon ready to pounce at any time (in 1947, the last snow was on June 12th, more recently, in 2007 our last freeze was June 8th).

The timing and duration of "spring" for us wholly depends on how many high pressure systems are brought in via the jet stream and how long those systems stick around before more winter weather comes in, for example, we had several days in January that were warmer than many of the days in June last year.

Whoa, ZachS -- and I thought our weather was confusing!

It can be frustrating to say the least Elisa. But we have some good things, like no humidity to speak of (a couple from Florida laughed at me when I complained that 10-15% was "muggy") intense sunshine that makes even somewhat shady spots viable for full sun vegetables, and very little in the way of insect pests.

Even a former president once quipped that his opponent was "like the weather in Colorado, just wait five minutes and he will change [his positions]."

I know all about the going to school in short sleeves and walking home in the snow. It was fun....not...

The only problem with our spring weather is that I get tired of snow and ice, and just when you think it's done until fall, there you are, shoveling the driveway and fishtailing down the road again, after 3 weeks of 70°. It gets old. Of course after nearly 30 years, you get used to it. Not enjoy, but used to it.

The only other place I have lived is Hawaii during my time in the service. There, the only seasons were monsoon and summer, and this high plains/Rocky Mountain native does not do well in wet, humid, climates lol.

Here in Central Texas the Mesquite has buds blooming, and Blue Bonnets are popping up everywhere. When those two things happen here the chance of a freak frost are marginal at best. I am starting to harden off tomatoes, and peppers for the garden. If only the rains will let up enough for them to get some limited sun. Until then they will be nestled together on the porch.

Here we have had a very mild winter this year, as is typical here with a mild winter is an early spring. The problem is it also tends to mean summer will be long, and brutal.

I'm also in Texas, Zones 8b & 9a (right on the dividing line.) Houston Southwest region.

Totally agreeing that it all depends on where you live. Bee and bird behavior aren't necessarily accurate ways to tell when Spring will arrive, but in South and Southeast Texas these indicators are more reliable than they are in the mountainous US areas, and also more reliable than in the Northernmost 25% of the N USA.

As with centexan in
Temple, the mesquite is blooming in my neck of the woods and another mesquite relative,
huisache acacia, is in full bloom too! Bees are active here on the citrus
trees and huisache flowers. The bees woke up in mid-January and got
nectar from the red swamp maple flowers, which usually bloom in
mid-Jan. Weird to have a high-nectar producing tree bloom in January,
but well, we do have them here!

Reptile activity is a very good sign of Spring for me, too. Looking back, reptiles like garter snakes and geckos and anoles always have shown up after the last frost, but I had not yet made that connection between reptiles and Spring, until tishtosh from New Mexico posted about that topic here. Thanks so much for your tip on reptile activity and Spring arriving, tishtosh from New Mexico! :)

If I were in Chicago or Denver, or Portland Oregon, or Ogden Utah I wouldn't necessarily expect an early Spring due to birds and bees. Instead, I'd do what I always do-- Check to see which trees are budding out in new Spring foliage. I was born in Chicago, and then raised mainly in Texas. In both these states, I learned from farmers and master gardeners how to "go by the trees" with planting.

Here in SE TX, I'm already having an early Spring like centexan is. When the mesquite and huisache bloom, it's planting time for the last-frost-date crops. These trees have a way of "knowing" when the last frost is; they are about 95% accurate, which is good enough for me. I wound up losing 80% of my food garden on March 1, 2012 due to a super late frost. RIP to most of my veggie seedlings, all strawberry seedlings, some of my cold tolerant crops like cabbage family, and all my herb seedlings that year. So, now I always save back half my seeds and seedlings till March 3, just in case of a freak March 1 frost. And plant the other half when the mesquite and huisache are in bloom. :) In most of S and SE TX, Spring is quite short.My Fall/Winter sown veggie garden is always much more productive than my Spring sown one.

But I do the Spring garden every year anyway-- too much fun to miss out on!!

Happy Spring Planting to everybody - whenever your planting time arrives.

Best wishes,

Grovespirit Zone 8b/9a Texas gardener

I wish trees were a reliable signal here, but on a regular basis, they, too are tricked to flower and leaf out, only to be burned by hard frost or lose branches under the weight of heavy, wet spring snows. That's more of the "norm" than the exception really, and I highly expect it to happen this year. Buds are all starting to swell, and will soon be open due to the 60's-70's we have had, but they are living in a fools paradise.

Last year was a pretty bad one. Deciduous trees that that had begun to leaf out got burned back to nothing, and all the fruiting trees, like chokecherries and American plums, were rendered fruitless for the season after they already begun to bloom heavily and then we were hit with a foot of snow on Mother's Day followed by several nights of hard freezes, lots of bear conflicts on the Front Range since there was no forage in the fall, one even manged to find itself in the heart of down town Denver looking for food.

Hmm, very challenging! I had heard of the bear problems last year, and the polluted river, and the fires in recent years, but not about all the frost damage on Mother's Day.

Would reptiles showing up be a better way for you to figure out when to plant, then? Or does that also not work reliably in CO?

My storage potatoes think it is spring. They are sprouting now -- and normally don't do that for another couple months. I suppose that room might be a little warmer, but not much, as it is underground. And it's completely dark. I think they are clairvoyant.

According to the long range forecast for my area, in the north west of SC. Spring is here..... I don't trust it though! It is 70's for highs and mid 50's for lows except a few nights later this month will be in in mid to low 30's. I do have my tomatoes started (earlier than normal) and I will plant my peas later this week, it's still too wet to till now.

Reptiles probably would be more reliable, but they are somewhat "rare" around here. I just go by the calander and hope for the best haha. In years I plant potatoes I do use dandelions as the cue for when to plant them. Once the neighbors yard turns yellow, I stick them in the ground. It takes a white for the tops to break the soil and even if they do, I can just throw dirt on top of them if it gets too cold.

Peppers go out in mid-late May (because I grow them in containers I can move them out of inclement weather) tomatoes get planted in the garden a week or two later. If we get a frost in early June (which is pretty uncommon), it doesn't much matter if the warm season stuff like squash and tomatoes get hurt by it, at that point there's not really enough season left for them to produce anyways.

Eastern Washington here, zone 6. We had "a lot" of snow, for us, and it started early (November). It was gone by mid-January. I don't expect any more freezing temperatures this year. It's been rainy all week, highs in the low 50's, overnight lows in the lower to mid 40's. It's hard to define "spring" here, it's more of a ratio between rainy and sunny days. July and August are usually hot as heck, and September-October are the nicest months of the year.

Personally, I look for the spiders. When I start seeing them coming out of their holes, I know Spring is right around the corner - it does help that it corresponds with the mesquites budding out.

That said, I can't really say we even HAD a winter here this year. (SE of San Antonio) We only had maybe half a dozen days that we dipped below freezing in the mornings - I'm crying inside for all the apple and peach orchards.

we had no winter here in CT.
it was above freezing almost the entire winter except for a handful of days and a quick cold snap were temps dropped to zero and two days later it was back in the 50s.. we only got one average snow storm. the entire month of Dec we were in the 60s..

just yesterday it was 73F.. these are late May temps.
last year we had a very early spring and, a hot and long summer. this year appears to be an even earlier spring.. i think this is probably the mildest winter on record here.

Spiders are out and about here, the damn chickweed is flowering (or was before I yanked it all out), frogs are making a racket, robins are out in full force, about 95% of my swiss chard plants survived the winter (very surprising) and are putting out new growth, garlic is growing, daffodils are up, my winter sown flower seeds are sprouting, the buds on trees and shrubs are swelling. And I'm just sitting here twiddling my thumbs waiting for another cold snap. :)

Rodney

Living in Ontario I am holding my breath! It was -25 last week with the biggest snow storm of the winter so far, but today it is a balmy 8c. The birds are singing, spiders are appearing (a very large one on my desk this morning!) but in my heart I know that there will be more snow. Inside I too am crying for the apple orchards as well as the maple syrup producers (confirmed to be a short season which means high prices). It can't come soon enough :)

I'm in Upstate NY, and it's been very mild, and downright gorgeous some days. I don't believe it! For one thing, I always watch the Hummingbird migration map, and compared it to many other years, and they are not arriving ahead of schedule at all. Just because it's 60 today, doesn't mean we won't get an inch of snow 2 weeks from now....I'm treating it like any other year.

Well the other shoe has dropped, and dropped with fury here in Colorado. 72° and sunshine on Tuesday, 29° and a foot and a half of snow on Wednesday, with another 6"+ tonight. Seems the old chestnut about March coming in like a lamb and going out like a lion is holding true this year. I just hope it gets it out of it's system and April is pleasant...