The calendar says spring begins next Tuesday, but a U.S. environmental groups says biological spring arrived last Monday.
Clean Air-Cool Planet, an environmental group concerned with global warming, says several physical changes that signal spring now come seven days earlier, on average, than they did in the past, the Buffalo, (N.Y.) reported Saturday.
A climatological analysis of records for a number of indicators at a number of sites in the northeastern United States found bloom dates for genetically identical lilacs occur about four days earlier than they did 50 years ago, said Clean Air-Cool Planet spokesman Bill Burtis.
Dates for apples and grapes come about eight days earlier than 50 years ago, while the dates of high water flow and "ice-out" on selected New England rivers also occur, on average, a week to two weeks earlier than in 1936.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
