August advice: put heating on and dig out an umbrella
THE balmy days of August are nearly upon us when all of continental Europe decamps to the beach. In Britain, on the other hand, the month is marked in homes up and down the country by the gentle whirr of the central heating being turned back on.
We did so in my house this week. Those windows that had been so enthusiastically flung open only a few weeks ago to allow the summer breeze in are now back firmly locked.
As I write this, the puddles on my street are beginning to hiss once more. I am considering firing up the stove.
The forecast for the foreseeable days ahead? Drizzle, downpours and the odd peal of thunder. Typical August weather, in other words.
This isn’t just a myth. Statistically August is often wetter than early spring. In London there are 13 rainy days in August compared with 11 in March. Typically in Edinburgh and Cardiff at least 11 days of the month are marred by rain. In Oban, on the west coast of Scotland, August brings an average of 16 days of rain.
Down on the south coast in August 2014, the eighth wettest ever in Britain since records began, there was even frost one night in Bournemouth, pinching the petals off the summer hydrangeas. Last year, fed up with another washout August bank holiday, the Manchester Evening News conducted a study of a decade’s worth of weather for the city and discovered on 20 of the past 30 bank holiday weekend days it has rained.
Still, consider this mere limbering up for the main event. The Met Office published some research this week which has found climate change will bring about a one in three chance of a monthly rainfall record in at least one region every single winter.
Soon it will be October and the floodwaters will rise.
And we shall no doubt think: “Oh for the heady days of summer…”