We Just Don't Get Proper Winters Anymore

During the recent spell of bad weather it was obvious from Gavin's Station and the local and national news that there is a Bermuda Triangle for bad weather in an area from Southampton to Weymouth and up as far as Salisbury. We just don't get snow, one day's snow in the nearly thirteen years that Nathalie has been alive. The number of days I have had to scrape frost off the car you could count on the fingers of one hand and still have enough fingers left to give somebody the old Agincourt salute.

There is a geographical phenomenon called The Hampshire Basin which ends about ten miles west of Southampton and has a strange effect on the weather for about another ten or fifteen miles. It's not unusual for it to be pouring with rain where I work and brilliant sunshine at home, some ten miles to the south.

Whatever the reasons this has been a very mild winter, hardly any rainfall in January and then whilst the rest of the country slipped and slid to work it was dry and sunny down here.

The good thing about the lack of frost or snow is that not only have the toads been active in their courting rituals but we actually have tadpoles in the pond, last year they were killed off by a second cold snap in late February so I'm keeping my fingers crossed this year. There are daffodils out in our neighbours gardens and buds on the honeysuckle, rambling rose and even the blackcurrant bush.

February is always the worst month for winter weather and now we are past halfway without any Sturm und Drang we could be in for a warm spring.