Talk of a drought as April has half its average rainfall
REMEMBER April showers? I even hummed the old tune yesterday, watering my onions for the second time this week. Forget the rains “making way for sweet May flowers” as the song attests. It is extremely dry.
The month is up and only around half of the average rainfall has fallen across England and Wales. Swathes of southern and eastern England have received around a third of the monthly average, and parts of eastern England less than a fifth – farmers are beginning to murmur of drought.
The problem is a blocking anticyclone squatted over us which is preventing the sort of south-westerly breezes that bring relatively warm and wet weather at this time of year. Instead, we have been left with dry, chilly weather and a stuttering spring which proves the old adage: “A wind from the east is no good for man or beast”.
Dry Aprils are a recurring theme of recent years. Last year witnessed an average of just 20.6mm of rain, while in 2020, 30mm fell. In April 2019, around 48.6mm fell which is similar to this month. The driest April on record was in 1842, when a paltry 11.3mm fell.
Pleasant as the lack of wash-out days may be, the dry weather does cause plenty of problems at this crucial time of year. Numerous studies have shown drought reduces nectar and pollen production in flowers which impacts on insects and the breeding birds which feed upon them.
Up north a bit of rain is forecast over the Bank Holiday (in between warm spells) but further south there is no significant rainfall on the horizon.
Still, there is one upside in my garden: two blackbirds have taken to performing their ablutions in my pond. I’m watching them now as I write this, perched on the pump and dipping their wings and heads into the water, making an almighty splash as they bathe.
Even without the familiar April showers, their snippets of song tell me it is truly spring all the same.