Madam, - Last night temperatures over most of the country were below freezing. Today the forecast is for hail, sleet and snow, and icy conditions tonight.
Two weeks ago the evening sky was bright with an extraordinary, opalescent orange glow.
Matthew Parris in the Times quoted the explanation of this by a Dutch scientist: "Some of the lowest temperatures ever recorded in the upper atmosphere above northwestern Europe were registered last week.
Temperatures were around minus 87.5C; they cause the formation of tiny ice crystals or "pearl" clouds that change the nature of the light.
"The change was observable around dusk."
At the end of January Green Minister Eamon Ryan said "Debates about the impact of climate change have become redundant. There hasn't been a single frost this winter" - a statement that was manifestly untrue then, and fatuous now.
Tomorrow Mr Ryan will announce that he has just heard the first cloud-cuckoo of spring. - Yours, etc,
ANDY BARCLAY,
Howth,
Dublin 13.