Is Winter Getting Shorter And Spring Getting Longer In Amarillo?

With today being the first official day of Spring, we're all rejoicing here in Amarillo. Free ice cream is happening at Dairy Queen, things are starting to bloom, and temperatures are (for the most part) living in the 70's and above.

Sure, we love the snow here and there, and it's not terrible to get rid of the warmer temperatures, but when it's all said and done, we'd all rather be outside and not have to bundle up to be out there.

Before we dive too deep into spring, let's look back the the winter we had in Amarillo. According to data, Amarillo recorded a zero degree high one day, which was the lowest of any of the bigger cities in Texas.

Overall however, we had an above-average winter when it came to temperatures. In fact, every city in Texas not named Austin had a warmer than usual winter. Austin only had an average winter thanks to a few days in January that got them down to their average winter temperature.

So is winter in its essence starting to go away? And because of it, are we getting spring earlier?

I mean, Punxsutawney Phil DID predict spring correctly if you can believe it or not. He 'said' no more winter, and he nailed it right on the head. I swear a couple days after that happened it was 70+ degrees in Amarillo.

Spring though has been coming earlier for most every city in Texas. Several cities in Texas reported that leaves started sprouting 3-4 days earlier than usual, and some cities reported up to six days earlier than they typically spring.

So is winter getting shorter in Texas and spring growing a bit longer? Would anyone actually be upset with that? I know I'm not mad at it.