Who needs the Med?
THINGS are hotting up. A proper bank holiday Easter egg-melting scorcher, in fact, with Britain predicted to be warmer than (insert glamorous European destination here) over the course of the next few days.
The climate protesters decamped outside Heathrow Airport yesterday are absolutely correct. Why fly anywhere for a dose of spring sunshine – as a staggering 2.1million of us are expected to do this weekend – when temperatures look to be on the brink of breaking records right here?
The current top temperatures for Easter Sunday are as follows: 77.5F (25.3C) in England recorded in Hampshire in April 2011; 69.3F (20.7C) in Scotland recorded in Aberdeenshire in 2015; 71F (21.6C) in Wales recorded at Brynamman, Dyfed in 1984 and 67F (19.4C) in Northern Ireland in 1924.
At present, 73F (23C) is predicted to be reached this weekend as dry and sunny weather spreads across Britain, but the mercury is rising
So rapidly is our climate changing that I often wonder what is the point of weather records in the modern era as seemingly every month another anomaly is surpassed. I suppose this is us weather watchers recording the first draft of history and a glimpse of a future that will require me to wear a knotted handkerchief on my broiling head in March.
Anyway, let’s save the doommongering for another day, shall we? Because what it means in the very most short-term is a beautiful long weekend for one and all.
The crab apple blossom is out, butterflies are emerging and the trio of young crows in a nest at the end of my garden are soon to take flight.
And important as it is not to shy away from the problems we face, so too is celebrating all that stands to be permanently altered if our climate changes beyond recognition.
For who can feel the sun on their face on a warm Easter Saturday and not think what a joy it is to be alive?