British spring comes early as winter takes a year off

Anthony Browne, environment correspondent

Sunday November 4, 2001, The Observer

It is one of the defining features of the British climate, endured by us all and celebrated in carols, marking the passage of one year to another. But now the British winter is in danger of following the British wolf and beaver into extinction.

As Britons bask in the warmest autumn in living memory, conservationists are warning that winter as it has been known throughout history will soon vanish, as the distinction between the seasons becomes blurred.

Instead of nature almost totally shutting down in the face of cold weather, it is simply slowing down slightly, as it does in warmer climes. Spring flowers are blooming before leaves have had a chance to fall off the trees. Birds that used to fly south for the season are staying put, and some plants will simply carry on growing all year round.

Frost and snow - once prevalent across Britain - are retreating to northern areas. Many species are so confused, their life-cycle has been thrown into disarray. Birds which should be nesting in the spring are nesting in autumn, and flowers that should bloom once are blooming twice. The extended growing season - four weeks longer than a few decades ago - means farmers are producing bumper crops.

Last month was the warmest October since records began in 1659, and climatologists reckon it was probably the warmest for at least 1,000 years. This year as a whole, although far cooler than the all-time record set in 1999, is still expected to be in the top 10 warmest ever recorded.

'The winters are warming up far more than the summers. There's no snowfall any more,' said Dr David Viner of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. The Woodland Trust has set up an observation project with thousands of volunteers to record how plants and animals are affected.

'It is incredibly dramatic. Autumn is continuing later, spring starting earlier, and autumn and spring events are starting to overlap. Winter is becoming far less black and white than it used to be, as autumn and spring merge into each other,' said Nick Collinson, the trust's conservation policy adviser.

Research suggests autumn is 10 days later than it used to be. The leaves of trees such as beech, maple and rowan are turning yellow about a week later than previously recorded, and leaves are staying on trees longer.

In southern Britain this year, many trees are still green - whereas in previous years, by early November winter would truly have started, and the leaves would all have been on the ground. In what used to be spring, trees such as sycamore, horse chestnut and oak are all coming out in leaf much earlier, and flowers such as snowdrops were last year recorded coming out before Christmas, rather than in February.

'This year we may well get snowdrops coming up while there are still leaves on some of the trees in December - the seasons are overlapping,' said Collinson. Birds such as the chiffchaff and the black cap, which traditionally flew south for winter, are increasingly deciding to stay in Britain. 'It's warm enough and there's enough food for them.'

Other species are simply mistaking the warm autumn for spring. Great tits have already been spotted nesting this year, which they should normally do in February or March. Dormice are threatened because their hibernation is delayed, and they are fattening up too early and will not be properly prepared when - or if - temperatures do eventually drop.

The change is 'good for gardens', said Guy Barter, senior adviser to the Royal Horticultural Society. 'There's a whole range of flowers still blooming - roses, rhododendrons and camellias. 'In the North of England, we're getting the growing conditions of the South East, and in the South East we're now getting the growing conditions of the South West.'

anthony.browne@observer.co.uk

-- Swissrose (cellier3@mindspring.com), November 04, 2001

Answers

This is powerful "in your face" evidence of global warming and yet we'll have some "expert" claim that this could just be another climactic cycle we're experiencing HOWEVER they never mention how climactic cycles are supposed to take millenia and yet these changes are happening in less than a century during our reign on the planet.

Wow, I WONDER IF HUMANS are responsible. Nawwwwwwwwww, some "experts" claim it ain't so.

It doesn't take an expert to see what's happening right in front of your face!!!!

-- Guy Daley (guydaley1@netzero.net), November 04, 2001.