Spring may not appear for another six weeks with El Niño set to thrust wintry conditions across the country, forecasters have warned.
After the mildest winter on record in both England and Wales, heavy snows have stopped springtime in its tracks.
Snowfall of up to 17cm landed in the Peak District today with a raw northerly wind expected tomorrow to make days feel more winter-like.
Much of the blame for the cold is the powerful El Niño in the Pacific that has sent world weather patterns haywire, and often delivers cold towards the end of our winter.
The truly awful news for gardeners, though, is that spring may not appear properly until mid-April.
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The Met Office is warning of trouble in the lofty heights of the upper atmosphere over the Arctic that is expected to bring yet more cold later this month and the first half of April.
The winds in the stratosphere some 50km (30 miles) high over the Arctic are reversing, sweeping westwards instead of eastwards.
That may hardly seem worth worrying about, but the stratosphere's upheaval will burrow down into our weather, allowing cold air to invade the UK and northern Europe, a phenomenon typical of an El Niño winter.
The last big stratospheric event like this was in March 2013 when a tremendous freeze gripped the UK in the coldest March for 50 years and the coldest Easter on record. There is a crumb of comfort this year, though.
“The impacts on the UK weather are unlikely to be as severe as those following the big event in early 2013,” said Adam Scaife at the Met Office’s Hadley Centre. “But it does increase the risk of wintry weather for the UK over the following few weeks.”
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The weather could well fluctuate from day to day, though, so Easter may not be a write-off yet. And when the stratosphere eventually calms down, normal springtime weather should resume, just later than normal.