Timing of spring.

As you might expect the biggest influence on when spring arrives in your part of the country is latitude. Spring starts in the far south, it then works its way north. There may be more than a months difference from when it arrives in the scilly isles to it spreading north to the shetland isles, which is about one thousand miles further north. Its not just latitude, but longitude aswell. Because of the warming influence of the atlantic ocean, it means spring will start earlier in the west than in the east. Also altidude plays its part, for every one hundred and fifty meters you climb the temperature will drop by one degree. So the caingorms are eight degrees colder than sea level. Spring arrives earlier in our cities than our highlands. Urban areas can be up to two degrees warmer then the surrounding countryside. This is due to the urban heat island effect. Finally there are the local climates which are called micro climates. South facing slopes will warm up quicker than north facing slopes. There are a few early signs of spring that we can look out for aswell,  ladybirds,frogspawn and bumble bees are a few. The later signs of spring are peacock butterflies,hawthorn blossom and swifts returning are another few signs to look out for. The bumble bee bombus territres is active all year round because of milder temperatures, we know this because of studies that have been carried out on it.