Watching Wildlife - Where has the snow gone?

In 1963 we moved up to Cumberland - which has now been demoted to boring 'Cumbria'.

We had already had the most impressive winter snowfall - we rarely saw snow in my home town of Liverpool so it was quite a novelty. Every winter Cumberland was a glistening, picture-book, snowy wonderland.

That lasted for several years. Roads were often closed for days at a time. Schools were regularly closed because most of the pupils lived in the country and couldn't get in.

By early October the fells would be capped with snow. As a freelance press photographer I was in my element.

I now live in the south of England where panic sets in at what we northeners consider only a mild snowfall so I've got used to no winter wonderlands. My friends in the north say that there hasn't been such regular blizzards and whiteouts as there used to be.

Apparently even Scotland has not fared so well either.

Even when there are falls of snow they don't last so long and the thaw soon sets in.

Global warming seems to be the answer. But why didn't we see what was happening sooner than we did?

Incidentally, in the absence of snow, how about learning to ski in pictures? To see what I mean Click Here!