MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Back in January, the Mid-South saw a deep freeze lasting over a week. Since then, we have seen the complete opposite. The stretch of weather since mid-January has rivaled some of our warmest winter conditions, with the period of Jan. 24 through Feb. 13 being the fifth warmest on record. This warmth has brought on the early signs of spring in Memphis.
The Spring Leaf Index is a tool we can use to track plant activity emerging after our winter months. It is mapped yearly by the National Phenology Network to track the start of our springs. It uses the blooming of lilacs and honeysuckle to determine Spring plant patterns since these are some of the earliest plants to bloom. Looking at data from this year, the red shading in the Mid-South indicates we are seeing plants spring back to life one to two weeks earlier than normal.
Our winters are our quickest warming seasons here in the U.S., meaning the length of our coldest part of the year continues to shrink. This has made this trend of an early spring more common happening every few years recently.
This can be seen in our average winter temperatures which have been rising quickly in the past few decades. The last 30-year climate average for our winter months in Memphis is the highest. As for this winter, although we aren’t setting records, we are well above any of these averages at around 46° with this number likely to go up before the end of February.
What this means for us is plant life will be more active over the next few weeks which can be seen in our pollen levels which are already in the medium categories over the next few days. This will likely result in those with allergies seeing impacts begin soon.