With the nights getting lighter and lighter as we head into spring, winter may feel like it’s fully behind us.

However, it was only last year that south east London saw snow falling in March.

Back in early March 2023, south east London reached sub-zero temperatures as it snowed on and off throughout the second week of the month.

A photo sent in by a News Shopper reader shows her garden last year covered in snow as snow continues to fall and the sky was completely white.

There were weather warnings for ice and snow by the Met Office at this time.

However, in 2022 just one year before there was no snow throughout March in south east London.

In 2021, while there was speculation that lots of snow would hit and that London could even have a “white Easter”, the Met Office quickly dismissed the claims and there was no snow that March.

There was also no snow throughout March back in 2020.

The Met Office has said that this year, for the first time since records began in the mid twentieth century , this extended winter period (November to March) is the first in its observational records to see three Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) events.

A spokesperson for the Met Office said: “A SSW is a disruption of the normal westerly air flow 10 to 50 km above the earth.

“This often makes the jet stream meander more, which can lead to the development of a large area of high pressure over northern Europe at the Earth’s surface.

“This can ‘block’ the Atlantic low-pressure systems which are responsible for the relatively mild, wet and windy weather that often occurs in UK winters.

“This blocking pattern increases the chance of cold, dry weather in the UK and mild, wet and windy conditions for southern Europe.

“However, the impacts of an SSW do not always equate to cold weather, for example, we have only seen intermittent drops in temperature around the two SSW events early this winter and typically around 70 per cent of events are associated with a cold snap.”

While the month is young, the Met Office has not predicted snow to hit this week so far.

According to the Met Office, today (March 14) the weather will be dry with some cloud but also some bright and sunny spells peaking through.

This afternoon there may be some rain or showers with breezy weather.

Tonight, the weather will be cloudy with more showers.

Tomorrow (Friday, March 15), there will be a mixture of sunny spells and showers with potential for thunder.

The showers will ease throughout the day and it will be mild.

Over the weekend, the Met Office forecasts a dry and bright start to Saturday before wet and breezy weather arrives.

This rain and wind is set to ease as we head into Sunday and on Monday it will be mostly bright and dry.