April will allow us to test the water for this summer
“In like a lion, out like a lamb,” is how March is often described in British folklore and, sure enough, the final few days of the month do look settled and calm.
The early indications are April also seems likely to live up to its name: that tumultuous month where spring often seems to turn on its toes and take a sprint for the hills.
The regularity of bad weather in April clearly baffled our ancestors, too, something apparent in the number of sayings that exist attempting to somehow make sense amid the squalls.
Normally a foul April was seen as a predictor of summer. There is “April showers bring forth May flowers,” which I’ve often repeated on this very page. Others include “A cold April the barn will fill” and “If the first three days in April be foggy, rain in June will make the lanes boggy.”
One hopes what the latter two lack in rhythmic quality they make up for in credence. Certainly the wild weather of the coming days will provide plenty of opportunity to test the various theories.
Casting an eye ahead to next week, more or less everything seems to get thrown at us. A cold front arriving on Tuesday will stir up outbreaks of rain as it pushes south eastwards while thundery showers are predicted in the north and north west.
The overnight frosts we have been experiencing over the past week will continue and what’s this on the horizon in the north? Why, wintry showers and gale-force winds to pave the way towards Easter.
If, like me, you have just gone around the house turning all the radiators down then this is most irritating news.
Still, at least the clocks go back tomorrow. So that’s another hour of daylight in the late afternoon to sit melancholy at the kitchen window watching the rain drumming spring back into distant memory.