By March, the transition period between winter and spring, with days still getting dark pretty fast, has become fully unbearable – like that one weird person left at the after-party nobody knows, who keeps telling extremely dull stories about their secondary school.
Since we’ve had virtually no sunny weather and no sunsets later than 7pm since SEPTEMBER, we’re feeling pretty desperate for some (quite literally) brighter days. BUT! The tide has started to turn, and British Summer Time is on the way.
Days are already subtly lengthening at the rate of almost two minutes every single day, and that means it’s soon going to be PROPERLY LIGHT, and maybe even QUITE WARM. To WIT:
March 12 (8 days ago)
First post-6pm sunset of the year has happened already, baby! We’re finally in the kind-of-long-day territory and, hey, that’s not bad. Not bad at all. We could start getting used to this if it decided to actually be sunny out, like, all the time.
March 31 at 2am (11 days from now)
In a mere 11 days (basically 10 at this point, innit), the clocks go forward, British Summer Time begins, and it’s now light until 7:32pm and counting from this day. I declare it summer from this! moment! on!
April 1 (12 days from now)
Now look – March is cool and all, but we all know April is when we really start cooking here in London. It stops being a glorified February and gives us some more prolonged sun and warmer weather, and I think that’s pretty darn neat. The best days are ahead of us; the six months of wintery hell is a mere memory; we’re sliding into the summer on our stallions and our steeds. I hope you’ve got your SPF and your unused-since-September bucket hat to hand.
April 17 (28 days from today)
By this date, it will be light until 8pm in the evenings. Guys, that’s less than a month away, and I am so, so ready… Get me to those after work picnics in the park with a few cold brews right now!
May 28 (69 days from now)
Peering two months into the future might seem futile in the world of weather forecasting, but in 2023, the blessed mercury hit 22°C on this day. And given how much Londoners love their summer outings—picnics! Al fresco dinners! Negroni-sipping on rooftops!—we’ll most likely be giddy with summer excitement by this stage. Absolute bliss.
If the weather gods cast the exact same spell this time, that’ll give us a lovely old start to the merry month of June.
So whilst it may be a regular midweek day in March right now, summer really is closer than you think. Hang on in there, London, we’ve nearly made it!