© Owen Humphreys/PAFour-year-old Kadie Lane scents spring in Shiremoor, North Tyneside, on Saturday.
But the prolonged winter may also have exacted a terrible toll on wildlife, with many birds, animals and plants perishing after months of bitter winds, limited food and repeated heavy snowfalls.
"The main pulse of southern migrant birds, such as swallows and housemartins, should arrive this weekend," said Matthew Oates, a naturalist with the National Trust. "The winds are at last in the right direction. There are reports of a lot of chiffchaffs in the Channel Islands. They may be stuck there."
Late springs are not unusual, but 2013 has been exceptional because of the unremitting cold.
"This is stretching my experience," said Oates. "Frogs have only just started turning up. Even in 1996 they had done their thing by the end of March. This is quite remarkable. The insects still haven't got going, but as soon as it warms up the midges and flies should be out. The bigger insects still haven't started."
Some ornithologists fear that tens of thousands of migrant birds which feed on the wing off insects and usually reach Britain by the start of April may have arrived and died.
