Put a Spring In Your Step

Today we're looking at the coming spring season as winter fades into memory and we anticipate release from lockdown. But due to the pandemic, it's not all plush roses with worries around rising case numbers and vaccination levels.

Let's get to it.

Ka kite, winter

There's still a chill in the air, but the birds are chirping, and Google searches for 'spring' (season) are on the rise. That can only mean one thing: spring is here. We decided to take a look at the data behind spring to see how people discuss it, and what the big topics are.

Yes a lift in search intent around August and September.

However, according to Google Trends, spring is our least popular season. Both winter and summer have a larger share of search intent over the course of the last 5 years. Red is winter, yellow is summer, see below, the peaks for winter and summer internet searches are higher.

When it comes to online mentions, the shift from winter to spring to summer is about as uniform as you'd expect. Winter mentions usually outstrip summer ones in the first week of June and Matariki is closely associated to winter (Matariki is the green line below).

Note that Matariki is out-performing or more popular search term in New Zealand than winter.

So how are people discussing spring?

Here are the related search queries around spring according to Google Trends.

Looks like two main threads - "when is spring?" and "spring rolls (recipe)". No real exciting data in there.

In summary, according to Google Search result it appears that many people prefer to focus on Matariki and Summer. Enjoy your spring whānau, even if in lockdown!