ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Visually, there are signs of spring all around us! We mentioned earlier this week how the crocus plants across Western New York seem to be ahead of schedule.

But how do you measure the progress of the growing season? Well, the National Phenology Network keeps an online data base that tracks the location of the first leaf to make an appearance. A national map from three weeks ago showed the first tree leaf appearance advancing across the mid-Mississippi Valley. 

But this week the first leaf appear is now near Cincinnati just south of Chicago. The NPN estimates that the seasonal timeline is running one to two weeks earlier than usual. No surprise, given the weather conditions lately.

Also coming up on the calendar is the Cherry Blossom Festival. News10NBC’s Glenn Johnson knows it’s not a leaf, but the arrival of this flower is long anticipated for the folks in Washington, D.C. area and it has a direct correlation to the weather and overall climate. The City of Washington is over 300 miles to the south of Rochester and National Park Service is predicting a peek bloom around March 23 (a little over week away).

The exact date of the bloom has been tracked for more than 100 years and we know that in recent decades the bloom has been happening earlier than previous dates. Obviously, this varies from year to year, but when calculating the average date of the bloom, what was once April 6,  is now April 1.

Anthropogenic global warming can and is measured in many ways. Whether by sophisticated satellites or by the natural world, but it is reasonably to say that Mother Nature responds and adapts.