Spring is “fastest-warming” season in the UK

Data given to BBC Weather by Nature’s Calendar, external – a citizen science project by the Woodland Trust – demonstrates how climate change is triggering natural events.

Since 2000 they have used public sightings of plants, animals and fungi to log the effects of weather and climate on nature.

Alex Marshall from Nature’s Calendar explained how important the data is to “see how nature is responding to our changing climate”.

Looking at when bluebells and frogspawn start to appear in the spring shows some clear trends over time.

Both are appearing earlier in April and March respectively.

Frogspawn sightings were the earliest on record in 2024.

First sightings averaged across the UK on 24 February, 17 days before the benchmark or average date, according to Nature’s Calendar.

This year, frogspawn has already been spotted in southern England with early indications that when all data is in, the average sightings will be on par with last.

Alex Marshall from Nature’s Calendar said: “In general, spring is getting earlier due to higher temperatures, particularly at the start of the season.

“We’ve already had one record of common frog tadpoles from Cornwall on 16 February, the first tadpole record of the year.

“Warmer weather at the end of winter tricks species like the frog into thinking it’s time to start reproducing.

“That becomes a problem, though, if some early March frosts occur which can kill the developing tadpoles…one negative impact of them coming out a bit early.”