“When you wake from a good night’s sleep, do you leap out of bed ready to go, or do you take your time before getting up? When nature awakes from a long winter’s nap, it’s a gradual process.” said on the Minnesota DNR website. Winter in Minnesota is coming to an end, and with that comes the inevitable changes leading to spring. Key indicators that spring is around the corner is when the amount of sunlight in a day starts to slowly increase because of the Earth’s rotation, snow starts to melt, plants start to grow and animals that migrate or hibernate in the winter start to reappear and come out of hibernation or migration back to Minnesota. Most of this information came from the Minnesota DNR website.
There are a lot of changes that happen between winter and spring such as hours of daylight. The amount of daylight that Minnesota receives each season is affected by Earth’s rotation around the Sun. Depending on how the Earth is positioned facing the Sun and the tilt of the Earth may also affect the amount of sunlight Minnesota receives each day. This doesn’t affect the amount of sunlight drastically but it will affect it by roughly an hour or two over time.
Some other big changes that take place during the transition from winter to spring are nature, temperature, weather and animals. The weather is one of the most noticeable adjustments that occur. These changes can differ from year to year but it is typically colder in the winter then starts to warm up in spring. With these changes regarding weather, it impacts other differences such as animals, hibernation and migration. Animals that migrate and hibernate typically aren’t as suited for the cold unlike the animals that stick around all year long, so when it starts to heat up these animals start to come back.
Isabella Boyum says “The biggest change for me is that there is no snow on the ground and all the flowers that start to appear.” While it is expected that there will be no snow on the ground after winter, . Once the snow starts to disappear the ground will start to warm up, which means that grass and plants will start to grow. This means that it is time to plant new flowers and vegetation. A couple of weeks later the plant life will start to sprout and bloom.
“During this time of year it is proven that nature is never boring; something new is always happening regarding the environment or something is changing about nature” says Finn Peterson. Sometimes the changes aren’t distinguishable to the average eye but there is always someone out there who will notice. The key to noticing is to look for changes and observe someone’s surroundings.
