By May, spring is in full swing, often tipping its toe into early summer. The days are significantly longer.

Her grandmother nodded. "The real answer is that spring is the time when the world wakes up. But if someone asks you for the months, you can tell them: in most of the Northern Hemisphere, it’s . In the Southern Hemisphere, it’s September, October, and November ."

Maya looked out the window at the budding trees. "So the real answer is… it depends?"

Under this definition, "Spring" consists of three full calendar months, regardless of where the sun is in the sky. 3. The Biological Definition (Phenology)

By the time arrived, the world had softened. April was the artist of the trio. She didn't like the harsh browns of late winter, so she brought the tears—gentle, persistent rains that washed away the salt and grime. Under her care, the oak tree’s branches began to swell with tiny, tight buds of lime green. The birds returned, gossiping about their southern vacations while building nests in the thicket. April was a month of promises; everything felt like it was holding its breath, waiting for the colors to explode.

In a small town nestled between rolling hills, a curious young girl named Maya asked her grandmother one crisp evening, "Grandma, when does spring truly begin?"

You might notice the Spring Equinox shifts between March 19, 20, and 21. This happens because a "calendar year" is 365 days, but the Earth actually takes about to orbit the sun. Our leap year system mostly fixes this, but it causes the exact moment of spring to drift slightly every year.

This definition allows weather scientists to compare statistics consistently from year to year. In the Southern Hemisphere (Australia, South America, Southern Africa), the seasons are reversed. Meteorological spring there falls in: