THE headline put a spring in my step on a Monday morning: ‘Snow warning for Bradford and West Yorkshire as temperatures plummet.’

That same morning I caught the weather forecast on the radio – it was peppered with wintry words: ‘freeze’, ‘icy’, bitterly cold’, 'sleety snow’ and ‘howling winds’. Just hearing them me a warm glow inside, a feeling of contentment.

What a difference a fortnight makes. Go back 14 days and we were still experiencing summer temperatures. I recall feeling utterly glum as a national newspaper declared: ‘Mid-Wales, the last day of October and it’s 71F. It was, depressingly, accompanied by a photograph of a woman on a beach on a bikini.

I moaned to my husband at the time, asking him how long it would be before cold weather - proper crisp, sharp weather - arrived. “Is it going to be warm forever?” I wailed.

Thankfully, there has since been a marked drop in temperatures, so much so that November 5 was the coldest bonfire night for ten years.

I celebrated by fishing my gloves and thick woollen tights out of hibernation.

I’ve had my fill of global warming. I want the seasons back. I want to feel those marked definitions in the temperature that come with spring, summer, autumn and winter.

I want crisp autumn mornings when I can stride out in my cosy scarves and chunky knit jumpers, and feel alive and energetic.

Summer leaves me cold. I never feel entirely healthy in hot, clammy weather. It brings about a lethargy that is hard to shake off.

Sleeping becomes impossible, and I have noticed how much more quickly I fall asleep and how much more soundly I sleep when the temperature cools.

When a sultry September turned to a balmy October I fretted and eagerly watched the forecast for cold fronts. I even took to watching TV programmes like ‘Arctic Live’, ‘Ice Road Truckers’ and ‘Life Below Zero’ just to get a fix of snow and ice - things we rarely see in Britain nowadays.

If I wanted the same bland, warm weather all year-round I would have emigrated to California or Australia.

As October progressed and there seemed to be no sign of the temperatures falling, I became seriously concerned, so much so that I conducted a preliminary search of house prices in Stockholm and Helsinki.

It may not be to everyone’s liking, but we need a drop in temperatures. We need those cold days when you feel the atmosphere cleansing itself, rather like placing something in cold storage to kill bacteria.

The switch to all-year-round warmth is also threatening our wildlife. I read the other day about its effect upon butterflies, emerging too early from their pupae. Hedgehogs don’t know when to hibernate and the life cycle of bees is disrupted. Horticulture has been turned on its head.

I would hate it to become so warm that winter disappears altogether. It may happen. For the moment I am making the most of that nip in the air, the bite of the wind and the wonderful fresh air that comes with the onset of cold weather.

And I am basking in the most recent revelation to hit the headlines - that Britain is ‘just weeks away from a major Arctic freeze as alarms are sounded to brace for the coldest and snowiest winter for years,’ said one front page.

‘In the past few days a change in air circulation around the North Pole has pushed forecasters to reassess outlooks for this winter with severe cold now looking increasingly likely.’ That’s music to my ears.

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