Something very strange is happening to our weather in that we don't seem to have winters any more.

We are frying instead of freezing in February and so far there's been just one trace of snow on the Sussex coast. Hove weatherman Kenneth Woodhams reports that 12 out of the last 13 Januaries have been warmer than average while hardly any of us can remember the last cold March. At the weekend I was in shortsleeves walking around London while in Henfield I saw daffodils in bloom.

Is it global warming? Well, the evidence points in that direction although the weather does have natural cycles and there have been warmer spells than this before.

Does it matter if it is? There are plenty of doom-mongers ready to tell us that the weather's going to get rougher and stormier as well as warmer - or alternatively that the Gulf Stream will swing away from us and we shall all freeze. The South-East could become arid and malaria-borne mosquitos might breed here.

However, I can imagine what these same prophets would be saying if temperatures were to drop to the levels of the Sixties. They would be warning us of great freezes like the one of winter 1963 and poor summers which never really became warm.

I can see many benefits to global warming down in this small corner of the South. The summers are getting better, encouraging tourism, especially in resorts. The sea is getting warmer, making swimming more enjoyable.

Many types of flowers are growing throughout the winter and spring bulbs are growing earlier. Vegetables and fruit are also ready weeks before they were in the past. More exotic varieties such as peppers can sometimes be grown while vineyards are becoming much more extensive.

The absence of really cold winters means huge savings on fuel bills, especially useful for elderly people or families on fixed incomes. There is less chance of slipping on ice or frost and disruption caused by freezing days lessens almost every year.

There are signs that we're getting used to good weather. When it rained on Monday, that was the first real downpour of the year, yet many people I heard moaned that it was always raining.

New BBC weather chief Helen Young was asked whether there were any great weather events of last century she'd liked to have seen. Her common sense answer was the great London smog of 1952 which lasted four days and killed thousands of old people, simply because she had never experienced weather like it.

I remember that smog and many of its more minor relatives when you couldn't see across a pavement and your face would become black with dirt if you walked around in it.

Smog was caused by industrial pollution and the Clean Air Act effectively eliminated it. Global warming is probably caused by human activity too, including heating large towns and running million of cars.

Will the world do something about it, just as Britain abolished smog 40 years ago? Not unless the weather turns a great deal worse - and probably not even then as pampered 21st Century humans prove selfishly reluctant to discard their comforts.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.