Summers are getting earlier, research shows

IT COULD soon be time to get out the shorts and flip-flops, according to new research from geographers at Sheffield University.
By The Newsroom
Published 7th May 2010, 22:09 BST
Updated 7th May 2010, 22:09 BST

The study, by former student Amy Kirbyshire and head of geography Professor Grant Bigg, has found "summer" is beginning more than two weeks earlier than it did in the mid-1950s.

The duo examined records of the first blooming date of early summer flowering plants and the timing of the first warm "summer" temperatures.

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Results revealed warm temperatures occurred 11 days earlier in the 1990s compared with the period from 1954 to 1963, while early summer flowering has advanced by three days. If this analysis is extended to 2007, summer has come forward by as much as 18 days.

Prof Bigg said: "There has been a lot of attention paid to the shift to earlier springs, but we've shown similar advancement in summer conditions. This could have the same implications as the shift to earlier springs for increased ecological divergences, as well as extending the time for summer weather extremes."