There are two ways to detect spring: when the center of the sun passes over the equator and when nature responds to the warming environment. The former happens on schedule every year, while the latter is subject to change.

According to a new study tracking biological and environmental indicators of spring, the season came earlier than usual this year based on historical averages, National Geographic reported. Really, that's little surprise. Though this past winter has been brutal at times, the trend towards global warming has been evident for many years of Google News.

The study, published March 17 in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, has tracked spring's arrival by measuring the rate of melting snow in the Rockies for the last 39 years. This year's melt was faster than it was 39 years ago.

"Those things all add up and start cascading through the community and having bigger effects on the ecosystem," Paul CaraDonna, study co-author and graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona in Tucson told Nat Geo.

Still, CaraDonna noted there will always be a strong link between the astronomical factors of spring and the biological ones. Mores sun -- and the longer, warmer days that come with it -- are a biological sign for flowers to bloom.

A recent study also conducted in Colorado found a similar change in seasons as a result of climate change. After counting flower blooms on a particular patch of mountainside in the Rockies, the researcher determined that wild flowers were blooming earlier than usual, even though the overall number of seasonal blooms hadn't changed. He wondered if a more strung out bloom season would affect eaters of wild flowers, such as hummingbirds.