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Early bird special: Spring pops up super early in much of US

AP PHOTO Tulip Magnolia trees bloom in Washington. Crocuses, cherry trees, magnolia trees are blooming several weeks early because of an unusually warm February.

WASHINGTON — Spring has sprung early — potentially record early — in much of the United States, bringing celebrations of shorts weather mixed with unease about a climate gone askew.

Crocuses, tulips and other plants are popping up earlier than usual from Arizona to New Jersey and down to Florida. Washington is dotted with premature pink blossoming trees. Grackles, red-winged blackbirds and woodpeckers are just plain early birds this year.

The unseasonably warm weather has the natural world getting ahead of — even defying — the calendar, scientists said Tuesday.

Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Phenology Network, which studies seasonal signs, have calculated local and a national spring index based on observations of lilacs, honeysuckles and temperature records that are fed into a computer model. The spring leaf index goes back to 1900 and 2012 has been the earliest on record . But preliminary records show this year ahead of 2012 in a good chunk of the nation .

As the world warms, spring is arriving earlier, but not everywhere. For a broad swath of the U.S., 2017 sticks out like a crocus in early February. Nashville, St. Louis, Washington, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Indianapolis are at least three weeks early on the spring index, but Phoenix and Los Angeles are running a bit late.

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