I believe it was leading into the winter of 08-09, when the head of the UKMET office said "snow is a thing of the past". That winter, the entirety of the British Isles were snow covered for the first time in memory.
A sage once said - "history shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men"
The beaches here suck. Stinking tidal estuaries with no waves but lots of jellyfish.
4 weeks? We'll all be lucky to see that with the strong to nearly super east-based Nino.