After one of the warmest, sunniest and driest Aprils in living memory, what can we expect from the month of May? A shortage of floral displays, perhaps: one proverb says April showers bring forth May flowers.
Our ancestors often made the connection between one kind of weather at a particular time of year bringing different conditions the following month. This may be down to simple coincidence but, nevertheless, it is true that in recent years dry weather in early spring has often been followed by wet weather later in the season, and vice versa.
So April 2007 was dry and sunny, with temperatures well above average – rather like the April just gone. But the period from May to July was the wettest since records began, not just in England and Wales but throughout the UK as a whole. Precipitation was about double the long-term average, and even higher in parts of central and eastern England.
Seven years earlier the situation was the other way round. April 2000 was the wettest since records began in England and Wales, breaking the previous highest rainfall figure from 1782, albeit by just 4mm. Yet the following month was dry and warm, especially in Scotland.
The next year the picture was very similar: April 2001 was very wet and changeable, while May 2001 was dry, warm and sunny. Once again Scotland basked in sunshine, in one of the warmest months on record north of the border.