For thinking that spring starts at the vernal equinox and not the 1st of March?

[SimonBridges]

Everyone, including Monty Don on Gardeners World, has been saying that spring starts on the first of March.

My understanding is that it is the spring equinox, which this year is the 20th of March.

This started to creep in with the weather forecast as meteorologists started to use the 1st of March, June, September and December as the start of a new season to make working out figures easier.

I am of the option that the calendar is a man made construct and we should stick to the movement of the planet.

AIBU?

Actually, most of the BBC weather presenters are qualified meteorologists who produce their own forecast graphics using data from the Meteogroup (used to be the Met Office). I studied Meteorology at uni and was at uni with some of them!

I agree that the 1st March signifies the start of meteorological spring, and is a consistent definition across the northern hemisphere. Obviously the weather and temperatures vary massively across the hemisphere but we need a constant definition so that data can be compared.

The metereologists and weather presenters were all saying on TV broadcasts on 1March that it was the first day of metereological spring. If you'd been watching that day, you'd surely couldn't have missed it.

I agree that culturally and pantheistically, I think of it as after the Equinox. But I think YABU to fault metereologists and outdoorsy types (farmers, extending to gardeners) for using the met terms correctly.

I personally go with when the clocks change and only have two seasons - hot and cold

As for weather presenters, most are merely autocue readers and not real meteorologists, and usually women under 40

Oh heavens.

• they are generally real meteorologist
• women under 40 can be intelligent and real meteorologist.
• the ones I see are generally men anyway.

I am of the option that the calendar is a man made construct and we should stick to the movement of the planet.
If we stick to the movement of the planet, then the spring equinox is MID spring as the summer solstice is midsummer. You are in fact going by temperature yourself, which follows 6 weeks behind light.