During Spring Break, NIU students’ moods might be described as “warm.”

However, Mother Nature may have been in the opposite mood. This is because the weather during spring break is not always “spring-like.”

Instead of its current name, NIU staff meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste thinks the week off should be called “Late-Winter Break” because the weather tends to feel like the end of winter rather than the beginning of spring.

Depending on how you look at it, spring has already started.

Meteorological spring, which is defined by changes in temperatures and precipitation, started March 1 in the Northern Hemisphere.

On the other hand, astronomical spring, also known as Vernal Equinox, doesn’t start until March 20. This is the day when the Northern Hemisphere receives approximately 12 hours of sunlight.

Spring weather has not yet arrived in DeKalb; southern Texas and southern Florida are the only areas in the U.S. where it currently has, Sebenste said.

“Most of the rest of the country is generally cool or cold,” he said.

For this reason, many students on Spring Break traveled to Colorado, which has been getting a lot of snow lately, Sebenste said.

“A lot of people go skiing now on Spring Break,” he said.

College students traditionally have traveled to warm-weather, beachfront destinations during the mid-March break, so if that was the case this year, the options in the U.S. were limited.

“It’s Key West or bust,” Sebenste said.

No matter where NIU students may have traveled during their week off, they still must face the weather in DeKalb today as well as the fact that warm weather may still be distant.

“This is the part of the story where I say I hope I am dead wrong about this,” Sebenste said. “We may have another month of [cooler weather] before we get [spring weather].”

He said we are currently in a year of La Niña, so we may have moderately-cold weather through April.