If proof were needed of the cold end to autumn, then Tim Sparks has evidence. He studies phenology, the timings of the seasons, and each year on the same dates in autumn he photographs the trees outside his offices at Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire. On 2 December this year the trees were bare of leaves - whereas on the same date in 2005 the leaves were still largely green.
It just shows how the British climate blows hot and cold from year to year. Some commentators, though, see this year's cool weather as proof that climate change doesn't exist. But by looking back over decades and centuries of old phenology records we can see an unmistakeable pattern of rising temperatures.
One particularly important study dates back to 1736, by Robert Marsham, a wealthy landowner at the village of Stratton Strawless, Norfolk. Each year he meticulously noted 27 different indications of spring, such as the flowering of wood anemones or the first call of the cuckoo. His records showed that late springs followed bitterly cold winters, as happened after the huge volcanic eruption of Laki in Iceland in 1783. And Marsham's family continued his records up to 1958, the longest single phenology record in Britain. This, and other studies, clearly show how springtimes are now tending to arrive earlier and autumns are later, despite the wild yearly fluctuations. The picture is unmistakeable - that Britain's climate is growing warmer at an unprecedented rate.