On paper we are in the absolute middle of winter…but according to Mother Nature – and many of you – spring is already here.

Winter can be defined as a season that brings death and decay to the wild – whereas spring brings new life.

Across New Zealand we are seeing “new life” and ‘positive’ growth rates.   A few pockets of farmers in the deep south have reported some July grass growth, while growers in northern New Zealand are saying buds are already out – although grass growth rates have recently been stopped due to frosts as far north as the ‘winterless north’.

Many of you wrote to us on Monday after Philip Duncan’s opinion piece on an early spring.  The majority of reports being that lambing and calving is now underway and buds and blooms are appearing. This isn’t usually how you’d describe the absolute depths of winter.

In an upcoming August edition of “Friends of WeatherWatch’ we interview Radio Sport host Martin Devlin.  We work in advance for this and today he replied to our 10 questions – we’ll share number nine with you today: “How are you finding winter so far this year?”  Devlin’s response: “Winter in Auckland lasts about a day and a half. Seriously, this aint cold”.

Long range forecasts show August is likely to start off fairly mild nationwide – with plenty of westerly quarter winds.

Don’t become complacent  
Spring may be showing some firm early signs this year, but Winter weather is still with us – in fact even over the next 48 hours we have a cold southerly moving in with snow to a few hundred metres over the southern South Island and hail showers to sea level in a number of regions in both islands.  

Snow storms can pop up in August to sea level in New Zealand – and nationwide polar blasts can occur as late as October.

But when you’re in July mixing warm days with cold and then you add windier westerly weather, plant growth and animals being born…it is very hard to look at a calendar and say “yep, we still have two long months of winter left”.

So what are your thoughts? Is spring showing up where you live? Post a comment below!

– Images / File, Peter Shone
– WeatherWatch.co.nz