In the UK and the northern hemisphere generally, spring officially starts in March. According to the Met Office the first day of spring is 1 March, but another and older way of calculating it is to start from the vernal (spring) equinox. This is the date when night and day are of equal length (the other equinox is in late September and is usually seen as heralding the start of autumn).

In 2014 the vernal equinox was on 20 March, so we can call this the first real day of spring, as from now on the days will be longer than the nights. But for most of us it won't really feel like spring until the clocks go forward at the end of this week, on 30 March. This is officially called British Summer Time, but for a lot of people the longer evenings are their first taste of spring.