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 (until this week) 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 13 (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.
March 26 at 2am (5 days from now)
In a mere six days, the clocks go forward, British Summer Time begins, and it’s now light until 7:23pm and counting from this day. I declare it summer from this! moment! on!
March 30 (9 days from now)
On this day in 2021, the mercury nudged 20°C in 2021 (22°C to be precise), marking the first warm period of that year.
We may have still been in lockdown, but it coincided with the permission to meet a few friends in the park, so the warm weather was just the tonic. Now, lightening did not strike twice, and last year we had the comparatively baltic 9°C, though the week before did give us a toasty 18°C to bask in. Maybe an unlikely gust of warm weather will hit us again in 2023. Keep scanning the weather channels when this date rolls around for those tasty rays.
April 17 (27 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!
June 3 (74 days from now)
Peering two months into the future might seem futile in the world of weather forecasting, but in 2021, the blessed mercury hit 21°C. 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!
Also published on Medium.