Seven Signs of Spring in Michigan
Mid-February the mercury in Michigan shot up into the mid 50s. We had a mild winter, and we thought it was over. An early spring was a sure thing.
Then March came in like a polar bear, on the heels of a winter storm. And it snowed and snowed some more. The spring equinox came and went, but snow was still flying all over The Mitten State. The calendar flipped to April, and the snow kept coming down. We wondered if Mother Nature was playing a cruel, prolonged April Fool’s joke on us.
The last snow fell just a few days ago in the Lower Peninsula, and it’s warming up again. It looks like spring is finally here to stay! There are always a few other signs of spring around Michigan besides higher temperatures and green grass:
1. The Boys of Summer are back in Comerica Park. Baseball fans wait all winter for Opening Day. Last weekend, the Tigers played their first home games of the season in the coldest temperatures in history, but it didn’t stop hardy fans from going out to the ballpark and cheering on their favorite MLB team.
2. The local ice cream shops reopen. Michigan is dotted with small ice cream shops that fill their freezers with sweet, creamy, made-on-site concoctions. Mooville Creamery in Nashville, Moomers in Traverse City and House of Flavors in Ludington are among Michigander’s favorites.
3. Bell’s Oberon goes on sale. Every spring, the Kalamazoo-based Bell’s Brewery releases its summer beer, Oberon, with much anticipation from fans of craft beer. Starting in 1985, Bell’s helped lead the charge in Michigan’s now thriving craft beer industry. Today you’ll find over 200 local breweries in Michigan.
4. Restaurants open their patios. When the snow melts and the sun comes out, restaurants and cafes open up their patios for alfresco dining. Visit any beach-side town, and you’ll find at least one establishment with greats views of the lake. In Petoskey, try The Twisted Olive where you’ll dine on cuisine from the Mediterranean coast with a Northern Michigan twist, while looking out over the coast of Lake Michigan.
5. Meijer stores stock their outdoor garden centers with flowers and bedding plants. If you live in Michigan, you’ve probably shopped at a Meijer store. Long before today’s other big box stores even thought of the concept, Michigan-based Meijer was a one-stop-shop for groceries, TVs and shoes. Just one more innovation The Mitten State can take credit for.
6. People wear shorts with their coats. Spring weather in Michigan makes getting dressed in the morning tricky. It’s usually chilly, sometimes downright cold, when you leave the house. But by noon you’re pulling off layers, because it’s too hot. So we compromise and dress for warm weather, then cover up with a coat to keep the chill out. This leads to strange wardrobe choices, like wearing a parka with shorts and flip-flops.
7. Road construction. There’s a saying that goes, “There are only two seasons in Michigan, winter and road construction.” All that ice, snow and salt tears up our roads. So as soon as it warms up, road crews are out patching cracks and filling potholes. We always know it’s spring when orange barrels start blooming along the highway.
