Ash is in leaf before oak so get ready for a soak

FINDING myself with an hour or so to kill in the city, I decided to visit a favourite tree. It is a stately oak, situated on a hilltop on a housing estate in Sheffield where I once spent a year running nature writing workshops with children living there.

During the workshops we would often gather under the oak, sketching the acorns and writing poems in the shade. It had evidently not fared well since. The base of the trunk was scorched black where someone had recently started a fire while any branches within grabbing distance had been snapped off for firewood.

While still alive, the tree was also barely in leaf. This seems to be a trend around me this year. Not the vandalism of oak trees, mercifully, but the fact that this year they seem to be reluctantly bursting their buds.

Ash trees, meanwhile, are already sprouting a fresh emerald foliage.

According to folklore, this does not bode well. Traditionally the timing of either tree was once deemed to predict the summer weather. “Oak before ash,” so the old saying goes, “in for a splash. Ash before oak, in for a soak.”

While the notion of either tree being a meteorological prognosticator has been disproved by modern science, the time that they come into leaf is highly dependent on the weather.

If spring comes early with warmer temperatures in February and March it is likely oak trees will leaf first. However, during cold and wet springs such as that we are currently embroiled in, ash will more likely win the race. This is particularly so if cold weather persists into April (sound familiar?).

This weekend the temperature is finally rising but proper spring weather still feels some way off. In between sunny spells be braced for yet more rain. More soak than splash I’m afraid. And not even yet an oak tree to take shelter from the storm.*

Proper spring weather is still a way off