Here in the UK I've bee oticing a gradual shift in seasons over the last few years and I'm measuring that by the changes in the leaf fall time. We still have green leaves on some species of tree now. True autumn coulours only started about 3 weeks ago.
During the 70s and early 80s we
never had leaves left on the trees by Bonfire Night and we could expect it to be cold, even frosty for the fireworks. Even as late as the latter half of the 90s we still thought of October as the gale season, but the last few years have seen very few.
Previously our winters had been tending to warmer, with very little snow and lots of rain, but the last 2 years have seen huge snowfalls, with snow on the ground for months rather than just days and temperatures down to -14C in the middle of the day. This has been caused both times by our prevailing westerly winds failing and cold air being dragged in from the east. It's forecast to do it again in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, temperatures in London are set to hit 17C today and 13C near Edinburgh.
Very strange!
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