Spring Arrived 3 Weeks Early This Year In NYC, Officials Say

NEW YORK, NY — Though you wouldn't know it by the freezing winds that swept the city this past weekend, spring arrived in New York City three weeks earlier than usual in 2017, according to the USA National Phenology Network, a government-funded organization that tracks the seasonal cycle year by year.

Experts at the organization base their annual announcement of spring's arrival on "the timing of leaf-out, migration, flowering and other seasonal phenomena in many species."

So what does this mean for NYC?

Jake Weltzin, the org's executive director, explained to the New York Times that many of the city's plants, especially in Brooklyn, began blooming earlier than usual this year, tricked by warmer winter temperatures.

“All of the recent heat has pushed the biological spring forward,” Weltzin said.

But that could have consequences, assuming we see more cold weather in the coming days and weeks, as meteorologists are predicting.

"When a hard frost follows a period of early flowering, plants can be damaged and crops can be lost," Weltzin said.

The city's premature spring could also mean that mosquito and tick seasons will start earlier, allowing the bugs to spread more disease; a longer and more intense pollen season, torturing residents with allergies; and a tougher time for migratory species, who may have trouble finding food.

NYC began showing up on the NPN's springtime map as early as late February. Here's a map of the nationwide situation as of March 6:

Images courtesy of the USA National Phenology Network