But now it’s not dry and icy five-month winters, but wet and windy springs instead. Or would you say these combine?
A Mormon Fritillary butterfly feeding on an aspen fleabane daisy, a main nectar source. Credit: Carol Boggs, Stanford University
Early snowmelt caused by climate change in the Colorado Rocky Mountains snowballs into two chains of events: a decrease in the number of flowers, which, in turn, decreases available nectar. The result is decline in a population of the Mormon Fritillary butterfly, Speyeria mormonia.
Urban heat island around Washington and Baltimore would lead to longer growing season, warmer autumn and spring
If you’ve been thinking our world is more green than frozen these days, you’re right. A recent study has found that spring is indeed arriving earlier – and autumn later – in the suburbs of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The reason? The urban landscape traps heat in the summer and holds it throughout the winter, triggering leaves to turn green earlier in the spring and to stay green later into autumn. The result is a new, extended growing season.
Want to know why spring flowers are always on time? Small wonder. It’s a gene.