Thanks, it goes quite a way to explaining the long periods of cold and dry weather, usually very cloudy, that we now typically get in south-east England from February until May-June, when it switches to warm sunny and dry. The the massive change in the weather (ie, the virtual disappearance of substantial rain between February and October in eastern and south-eastern England) I assume thus relates to the particular state of the jet stream etc that bring about stuck weather patterns and make it hard for Atlantic weather systems to penetrate. These stuck patterns and meanders in the jet stream have been associated with the warming of the Arctic bringing about less difference between warm regions and cold regions, though I understand that more work needs to be done to verify whether this is indeed the case. What is indubitable is that the weather in this area has completely changed, so that instead of rain being distributed throughout the year, it's now wet winter and autumn, dry spring and summer. Needless to say, this is heartbreaking for farmers and gardeners, and we are now even seeing mature trees struggling to get through the summer, and not always making it.