Photo Courtesy of Izzy Casdin
Generally speaking, warm weather in spring is expected as the seasons move away from winter and towards the spring and summer months. Spring days are typically mild, with temperatures increasing gradually, giving plants and animals (and us) a moment to adjust to the changing conditions. It’s that moment in the year when we reflect on the bone-chilling winter mornings and recover from shoveling several inches of snow off our sidewalks and driveways. We use all this winter weather as a reason to deserve the warmth and wildflowers. We feel we have earned our beautiful days. This is all fine and dandy except when we have a winter with little or no snow and just a few chilly days…
Did you unpack your winter coat or that old down jacket you used a few years ago to go skiing? Maybe you didn’t even touch it. This clothing hangs in the back of your closet like something that used to be important but now seems strangely out of place next to your Hawaiian shirts. And it begs the question: did we earn our spring? When the weather is unseasonably warm in spring, it can have both positive and negative effects. Positively speaking, warm weather brings about earlier blooming of flowers and trees, allowing for a potentially long growing season for crops and gardens. Noticing the cherry and Magnolia trees in full bloom can put a zip in your step and improve your mood but early blooming is also risky.
In the larger scheme of things, warm weather in spring can also bring about drought conditions, which can be harmful to crops and wildlife. It can also increase the risk of wildfires, as dry vegetation becomes more susceptible to burning. We generally imagine the fire is only started by flames or something flammable, but it’s actually super dry conditions and hot weather that can lead to a fire.
There is often an unusual warm spurt and then a super chilly cold snap with potential freeze that can really “confuse” the blooming flowers and trees. They bloom and then are destroyed by the cold which can actually make growing seasons surprisingly short. Historically speaking, bouts of warm weather followed by freakishly cold weather snaps have been on record since the 19th century. The last big snowfall was on Yankee Baseball’s opening day in the 1980s. According to the New York Times, 9.6 inches of snow was dumped on New York City on April 6, 1982 making it the third snowiest April on record. Can you imagine the Yankees were set to start running the bases and instead the city saw almost a foot of fresh snowfall instead? That’s certainly not how we imagine the start of spring. After the historic snowfall, many people were shocked by the unusual weather. “Snow in April?” asked an astonished Frank Panisello, “Only once in your life…”
At Fieldston, the campus has so much plant life and students get a sense of the weather walking from building to building multiple times a day. The positive effects on overworked students’ moods is undeniable and such a big bonus when the weather warms up early. “I can go outside and read my book or have lunch,” says Form IV student Ariana Sidman, “and it also gets me off my phone for a while to enjoy the breeze.” Truth is, students are most often on their computers, at the lib or on their phones. It’s a great feeling to take off your jacket, put down your books and enjoy a few minutes of natural sunshine this time of year.
