Not so typical Spring weather….

With Easter just a few days away it felt a little odd to be digging out the children’s snowboots yesterday as our local temperature plummeted to Arctic. Their school was closed for the day due to a broken boiler and rather than thinking about readying our garden for an egg hunt next weekend, I was considering resurrecting the sledges instead. This end of the world weather is starting to depress the nation and you can’t help but wonder if Spring will be cancelled this year. With every day that continues to bring us a sleet/rain/snow combination, I find myself worrying unnecessarily about the health and safety of daffodils and trees, they are really trying to strut their stuff but instead are being battered by our freakish weather system.

Kamikaze Daffodils!

While I waited in line in the shops today, I overheard two ladies discussing the usual British topic of weather. One said, “This weather is ridiculous isn’t it?” Her friend replied, “They say it’s going to get worse and to expect more snow. When will they give us some good news?”. What I wanted to ask them is, who are ‘they’? Who are these people you refer to? The weather experts, the Government, the FBI? We are all happy to put the blame on ‘them’ but who should get the blame?

Even when you watch the weather forecasters on television, they seem fed up at work as they deliver weather reports with a raised eyebrow and a shake of their head in a ‘what are we like?’ type expression. I particularly like when they try to shirk the blame by stressing that we were expecting a good weather weekend, but now there is a cold front heading over from Siberia, it must be the Russians fault. Or the reason that our Summer’s are so wet is due to a pesky ‘misplaced jet stream’ sitting over the UK, if it wasn’t for that then we would be basking in the heat. Long range forecasts for Summer this year believe that we can expect flash floods in June, heatwaves in August and perhaps a swarm of locusts at some point?

The week ahead looks bleak.

I often worry that it is all down to climate change, that perhaps we are destroying our planet so quickly with our carbon emissions, that by melting the Arctic we are causing this freakish weather? Were the summers of our childhood so much better than they are now or are we just better at moaning about it now we’re older? I try to do my best by the planet, we recycle obsessively, try not to use unnecessary electricity and educate my children about the importance of being eco-friendly. However, when so much of the world doesn’t bother and with places like Las Vegas blaring electricity 24/7, it leaves you feeling like you could be turning up to an earthquake disaster with a dustbuster!

Whatever is the cause of this weird weather system, be it our planet evolving, our forecasters passing the buck or a one-off bad start to the year, if our weather was to suddenly straighten out what would the British public talk about? We can only hope things turn around, in the meantime I am about to wrap myself up in fifteen layers to see my children’s ‘Spring concert’ in their school with the dodgy heating! Happy Easter everyone!