Call me selfish perhaps, but I have a me-centric idea for a solution to Em's (and my) weather dilemma. Hot weather is nice, but I can't stand more than a few days of it before I want a break. Not unreasonable if you think about it. The same is true of many other things too, so why should the weather be allowed to get stuck in a monotonous rut? I mean you wouldn't want even your favourite food for every meal (unless it was ice cream, of course). My solution? Wobble the Earth on its axis so that instead of 365 days, a year takes a week, or maybe two. We might also have to lay the Earth over on its side a little more to accentuate the seasons, because otherwise they might not kick in quickly enough. But the upshot should be a couple of days of scorching sunshine followed by a nice, refreshing snowfall. The precessing of the Earth's axis might have to be rather abrupt because you want that snow to kick in quickly, like a cold drink after a hot afternoon, so there is some risk of shaking the Earth to pieces, but if we're not planning to fix the whole man-made climate change thing, then what have we got to lose?