My daughter reported that her flight to Chicago from Heathrow last week landed one hour ahead of schedule, due to the weakness of the jet stream.

Apparently the alteration in the atmosphere has allowed cold air to move down to lower latitudes in some parts of the world, but in other places the temperatures are unseasonally high.

Whilst most of the UK is under snow, we have had very little around my house, on the South coast close to the Isle of Wight, it was too cold to snow.

The temperature has risen today though, so we might get some coming in fron the south west, rather than the north east, which is where most of the snow had blown in from over the last few weeks.

I have quite enjoyed the bright sunshine and icy temperatures, not having to travel in them, but feel a bit deprived having seen the rest of the country playing in the snow.

I think that we would do well to remember that the global climate is a series of currents, streams and flows performing an intricate dance around eachother and the planet - and just because they have been performing one set of figures for some time, once changes are made the old figures might never be danced again.

Anne Croucher