Spring is supposed to officially start March 20th.
It always been either the 21st or 22nd.
What gives This year?
Well, spring officially starts whenever the Spring Equinox (exactly 12 hours of day and night) happens, so I guess, for some reason, the Equinox is happening earlier this year.
According to whom?
Tis what my calendar and the newscaster said.
Guess the earth is speeding up;)
The exact moment that spring begins, astronomically, is when the Sun crosses the celestial equator. This is the Vernal Equinox. It can fall on March 21 or 22, depending on various factors and your time zone. Actually there aren’t exactly 12 hours of day and night on the equinoxes, because the Sun isn’t just a point, but a disk, so it’s light before and after the middle of the Sun rises and sets.
You can read more here:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/EarthSeasons.html
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/equinoxes.html
This is all according to the U.S. Naval Observatory, official timekeepers for the United States.