When Does Spring Begin?

When does spring begin? Well, it depends on whom you ask.

Most calendar makers list the first day of spring as the day of the vernal equinox, which occurs around March 20. This is referred to as astronomical spring.

Most atmospheric scientists, meteorologists and climatologists say it begins March 1. The National Weather Service uses March 1 as the beginning of spring for climate summary purposes. Dates for the beginning of the climatological seasons are March 1 for spring, June 1 for summer, September 1 for fall and December 1 for winter.

The dates for the beginning of the astronomical seasons are the vernal equinox (around March 20) for spring, the summer solstice (around June 21) for summer, the autumnal equinox (around September 22) for fall, and the winter solstice (around December 21) for winter.

Other ways of defining the seasons have been proposed. The one that is the most logical is to define the summer solstice as the midpoint of summer since the daylight is greatest then. The midpoint of winter is defined as the winter solstice since this is when the daylight is least. By this method, summer would be the six and half weeks before and after the summer solstice. Winter would be the six and half weeks before and after the winter solstice. The midpoint of spring would be the vernal equinox. For fall, it would be the autumnal equinox.

Other designations of spring include Good Friday or the start of the baseball season. My personal favorite is the Masters Tournament week in Augusta. Once the Masters is over, spring is usually here to stay in Georgia. Of course in Georgia, we can still have a dogwood or blackberry winter cold snap in late April or early May.

Regardless of which definition of the seasons one uses, spring in the Southeast is a season of transition. Early spring is characterized by wide swings in temperature with periods of very cold and very warm weather.

Freezes are common throughout Georgia during March. Freezes in late April do happen at times, especially in the northern half of Georgia. Snow and ice storms can happen in March, too, which has included a major blizzard in 1993 and an ice storm in the early 1970s.

By David Stooksbury
University of Georgia

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Winter Weather OK with Georgia Peaches, Onions

Georgia Vidalia onions and peaches need wintry temperatures to produce their best in spring and summer. So far, conditions have been excellent, say University of Georgia experts.

“Right now, the Vidalia onion crop is progressing very nicely. We expect acreage to be pretty stable,” said Reid Torrance, the UGA Cooperative Extension coordinator in Tattnall County, where 60 percent of the crop is grown.

Approximately 80 percent of the expected 12,000 acres has been planted. Recent rain has made planting more difficult. “We are having to hop around to find fields dry enough for planting,” he said.

He expects farmers to grow 600 acres of organic Vidalia onions, a 50 percent increase over last year.

“Onions are very tolerant to cold when they are young,” Torrance said. “But, we don’t want a real cold winter. Temperatures in the low teens and single digits bring a risk of cold injury. By the same token, a warm fall and early winter can cause onions to grow too much too soon.”

Several winters in the 1980s wiped out the crop. But more cold-tolerant varieties now help prevent that, he said. The last devastating freeze happened in 1996. Improved varieties and management has helped farmers control diseases in recent years, too.

Onion farmers seed planting beds in September and transplant the young plants from the beds to fields in November and December. They harvest onions in April and May. To be an official Vidalia onion, the onion must grow in one of only 20 counties in southeast Georgia designated by the Vidalia Onion Act of 1986.

While onions use the cool winter months to mature underground, Georgia peach trees need chill hours, or hours below 45 degrees Fahrenheit, to stay dormant. This helps them bloom properly in the spring and produce fruit in the summer.

“Depending on the variety, Georgia peaches like to get between 400 and 1,100 chill hours between October and Feb. 15,” said Frank Funderburk, UGA Extension coordinator in Peach County.

Georgia has 12,000 to 14,000 acres of peaches scattered throughout the state. But most grow in central Georgia. As of Dec. 8, Peach County had received 375 chill hours. “We are ahead of the last three years. We are looking good,” he said.

In recent years it hasn’t been a lack of chill hours, but rather a late freeze that hurt the crop. Freezes in 2007 and 2008 cut the crop by half, he said.

“We can make a crop with low chill hours, but we won’t make a crop if temperatures drop too low after buds start to develop,” Funderburk said.

A freeze in 1996 destroyed the entire crop.

“We are hoping for a better year in 2009. By mid-January we will have a good idea of where we are,” he said.

By April Sorrow
University of Georgia

April Sorrow is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

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