It’s only February, but after the weekend we’ve just had, you might have forgotten. A couple of days into sunny weather and in embarrassingly British fashion here we are, sitting out in in the sun, braving the bare leg, and literally cracking out the barbecues. I’ll confess, I didn’t wear a jacket all weekend, and it was glorious – even heading out on Saturday night and taking a looong stroll home on Sunday.
Yes, it’s probably too early to be as excited as we are, but there’s something beautiful about waking up with sunlight streaming through the cracks in the curtains and walking amongst long shadows cast in the early evening. And if Twitter is any guide, lots of people were full-on pretending it was summer:
But we’ve also got to acknowledge how difficult this weather is to actually dress for:
Meanwhile some have been also thinking about imminent climate catastrophe:
Personally, was just getting a bit emotional:
In my teary-eyed state, I chatted to Met Office spokesperson Grahame Madge, who told me that the beautiful weather is essentially the result of a lot of lucky coincidences – a combination of high pressure from continental Europe, relatively little cloud which has allowed the sun to stream through, and a lack of rainfall.
“Relatively little rainfall means the soils have dried out a bit, so when heat from the sun strikes the ground, it’s not having to waste energy evaporating water,” Madge said. “We then get more of that energy being transferred back into warmth.”
Although this might be set to be the hottest February since 1910, there’s also no way to confirm if it’s a result of global warming yet: “We have to be very careful when attributing any weather event to climate change, but these warmer temperatures do fit a pattern,” he said.
Madge also said that the run of conditions probably won’t last past Wednesday. So although there’s something slightly embarrassing about our behaviour as the temperatures climb into the double figures, we might as well paint our toenails, slip on some sunnies, dust off the barbecue, and make the most of it.