Looking back over my past blog posts, it seems that usually at this time of year, the garden is starting to come alive with colour. Forget-me-nots, tulips, daffs…they are normally turning the garden away from the gloom of winter and into the joy of spring. But not so, this year.
While our new bed of daffs is very close to bursting with colour, the rest of the garden is still dormant. There is lots of tulip foliage but no flowers yet. And as for the forget-me-nots…you can just forget it. Not a single flower.
The lack of garden movement is due to the unseasonal cold and cloudy weather we are currently experiencing. On Easter Sunday, somewhere in Scotland, the temperature went down to -12, a record for the time of year.
And why is this happening? Well, according to some experts, it’s the position of the Jet Stream. Rather than blowing the chill weather away, it is still sitting well south of us, leaving Britain with the cold from the north. Apparently it will be with us for at least another week. No spring yet, then.
According to other experts, it’s explained by the slowing of the Gulf Stream and, more specifically, the impending cessation of the North Atlantic Deep Water circulation. The Gulf Stream controls the water temperature of the entire planet, moving like a conveyor belt from one pole to the other, warming then cooling.
If you add both of these effects together, it comes down to the changes predicted by climate change experts over the years.
A chap I see most mornings walking his dog, always comments on the weather and today, amid the cold of our extended winter, stated that it proves global warming is just “bollocks!” Mirinda reckons he was joking but I think he represents the majority of uninformed people who can’t see the heat for the cold.
Climate change is real, global warming is real, rising sea level is real and humanity’s ignorance is real. But then, I guess, humanity always has prayer…that will solve everything.
