Spring Is Here... But It's Still Winter

While we've seen some extreme winter storms over the past few years, you may have noticed that winter is shorter than it was, say, 20 years ago. Where I live, daffodils bloom and irises sprout normally in March, but this year both plants sprouted in January, which is concerning. According to the USA National Phenology Network, leaves and flowers across the South have appeared earlier than in the last 39 years, with some areas reporting the earliest blooms ever recorded.

The Weather Company forecasted February would see above-average temperatures in the Southeast this year, and the plants are already reacting. Reports from citizen scientists are already confirming the model’s predictions. [research scientist Theresa] Crimmins said. And the Southeast isn’t alone: Spring also arrived early in parts of the West, including Portland and Seattle. What’s troubling about all this is that—hello!—we’re still in winter, man. That means temperatures could still drop, which could devastate any plants that have already flowered.

“For the most part, if flower buds and open flowers are hit with a heavy frost, that’s it for them,” Crimmins said. “They could be injured to the point where they won’t fruit and they won’t put on subsequent flowers.”

A killing frost after bloom could spell disaster for fruit crops, like when 80% of the Georgia peach crop failed in 2017. A disrupted cycle has implications for birds and insects as well. Read about the early spring stats at Earther.

(Image credit: National Phenology Network)


Comments (0)

ChrisLocke, I wasn't trying to point the finger of blame at the teacher - I just said how it looked to me, not knowing the circumstances.

First reaction is that it's funny - stupid kid. Second thought is questioning the circumstances. Maybe teach needs to grow up a little, too. I dunno.
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As a former teacher, believe me, it isn't that hard to figure out who's cheating... I had a student throw a desk at me once because I scored both his paper and the paper of the student he'd copied a zero. To him, he had the right to copy someone else's work...as long as he actually wrote out the answers longhand. To him, that was not cheating.

But that thinking was quite common in the classes I taught in French schools.

Yeah, go figure.
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Poor guy. I'm sure the teacher is wrong - the student wasn't cheating, he was just "clever." Idiot teachers. Who are they to be condescending to cheating students anyway?
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I taught high school biology for 32 years. I scrambled questions and answers to my multiple choice tests,even easier to do when computers came along. My first few tests saw similar results for students eye-balling a nearby classmate. It did not take them long to realize that looking at someone's answers was pretty much useless. I could not do much about it with written homework. One time I actually got two homework papers from the same student name in two different styles of handwriting. It was obvious who was the cheater and the cheatee. I stapled the papers together and had them each share 1/2 of the grade.
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I think you formed the perfect rebuttal to the first half of your comment in the second half.

"Not knowing the circumstances or even what level the questions were, it’s really hard to say."

We don't know if this student has had a long history of cheating, or if the teacher was just having a bad day. We don't know what the history or circumstances are. Some students are always trying to work the system and pull a fast one on the teacher. Then again, some teachers get into teaching because they like to feel superior to the students.

It's really hard to say.
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I almost received a zero for cheating in 11th grade English. If the teacher thought there was cheating going on, it was her policy to give zeros to both students since she couldn't know who copied off of who. In my case the girl behind me copied my answers but didn't know that I make up crazy answers if I don't know the correct one. It became obvious that she was the one doing the copying when my usual wise guy answers like "the milkman" or "Ronald Reagan" were used for questions about who wrote particular poems.

It did bug me a bit that I almost received a zero when I wasn't cheating nor helping the cheater cheat but in the end it was simply too funny to be upset.
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That teacher needs a grammar lesson. He/she also needs to be less coneescending.

I hope the teacher knew for certain that it was a case of copying and not simply an error on the student's part.

The "Did you just guess this?" seems a little mean-spirited. Not knowing the circumstances or even what level the questions were, it's really hard to say.
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