Early Spring Frost-Free Regions: Comparing 1950s and 2010s

  • Released Wednesday, March 19, 2014
  • Updated Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 2:01PM
  • ID: 4154
These visualizations show observational evidence that the growing season (climatalogical spring) is occurring earlier in the northen hemisphere. Scientists analyze recorded ground temperatures throughout each season and determine the earliest frost-free dates for each location every year. The earliest frost-free date in a growing season often does not correspond to the northern hemisphere's Spring equinox (about March 20), which is the astronomical first day of Spring.

The visualziations below show frost-free regions for March 20 and April 20. The regions colored in light green are the frost-free regions averaged from 1950 through 1952. The darker green regions that fade on are the additional areas covered by the frost-free regions averaged from 2009 through 2011. More area is frost-free in the each of the 2009-2011 averages compared to the 1950-1952 averages.

March 20 frost-free regions over North America. Light green is the 1950-1952 average, darker green is the additional area for the 2009-2011 average.
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April 20 frost-free regions over North America. Light green is the 1950-1952 average, darker green is the additional area for the 2009-2011 average.

Macrh 20 frost-free regions over Asia. Light green is the 1950-1952 average, darker green is the additional area for the 2009-2011 average.

April 20 frost-free regions over Asia. Light green is the 1950-1952 average, darker green is the additional area for the 2009-2011 average

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Series

This visualization can be found in the following series:

Datasets used in this visualization

HadGHCND Gridded Daily Ground Temperature
Observed DataHadley Centre1950-1952, 2009-2011
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Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

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