And then on Tuesday, glorious sunshine. I went for a walk on the seafront on my lunch break, and it was so warm I took off my winter coat and was striding along in my shirtsleeves.

Changeable weather has always been a feature of life in this country – and a safe topic of conversation – yet this week's extremes bring up the issue of longer-term shifts in seasonal patterns.

Climate change is a huge issue at the moment. Over the last few years the term 'carbon footprint' has crept into everyday language, coupled with what we can do to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the battle to halt global warming.

Yet when viewed over the last few thousand years, climate and sea levels have never stood still. In Roman times, the sea went all the way up to Pevensey Castle, or Anderida as it was back then, and the Levels were still under water. The seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were known as 'the little Ice Age' – the days in which the Thames froze over and Londoners held fairs and skating parties on the ice.

There is a school of thought that climate change is linked to the earth's orbit around the sun and, to a smaller extent, the degree of tilt the earth experiences over the course of the year, which brings the change in seasons.

Our orbit is slightly elliptical, not circular, so there will be times where we will be closer to the sun's heat and times where we will be further away and colder. And a greater degree of tilt of the earth's axis will have a stronger effect on the seasons than a lesser, with possible implications for the ice caps.

However it cannot be denied that carbon emissions are having a negative effect. Man does need to change his habits – so that's no excuse to stop recycling, stop using the car less or stop looking for measures to save on electricity and gas consumption.

After all, it's our future. And think of the savings you might make on your energy bills!