Sign we've all seen in nature shows sunny days are here to stay

If there’s one thing we can all predict with certainty — it’s that British weather is unpredictable.

From being warm and sunny one day to hailstorms and thunder the next, we’ve all become well acquainted with the fickle weather in the UK. And while the Met Office is on the job of providing us with timely information and accurate weather forecasts, sometimes it’s best to turn to good ol’ Mother Nature for what to expect.

We’ve all heard of Old Wives Tales — sayings from centuries past that have made their way down generation after generation, and among them, old English weather proverbs are astonishingly popular.

Having grown up with many of these weather proverbs from a young age, it’s always interesting to look at signs in nature and see whether the sayings hold up. More often than not, the proverbs are bang on the money.

One such popular saying is ‘Ne’er cast a clout ’til (the) May is out’, and it was first seen in the written form in 1732, although it may have well existed in a word-of-mouth form way before that time and probably passed along across generations.

To break this old English proverb down — clout is an old term for a piece of clothing, and many believe the word ‘May’ refers to the ‘May Flower’ popularly known as hawthorn, one of the UK’s most commonly found plants which blooms in May. Others take May to be its literal translation, that is, the month of May.

So in other words, the old saying roughly translates to ‘don’t take your warm clothing off until May (plant or month) is out, as the cold weather can return at any moment — something we are seeing in real time.

In fact, the month of May has been packed with unpredictable ups and downs when it comes to British weather, as we witnessed a solid week of hailstorms, rain and thunder in several parts of the country, immediately followed by a week-long heatwave in many parts of the UK.

This was once again followed up by rainy and wet weather, further cementing the belief that old wives tales are popular, and seemingly very accurate, for a reason.

According to the Met Office all three months of the meteorological spring in the UK recorded mean temperatures that were ranked within the UK’s top 10 warmest on record.

Met Office scientist Dr Emily Carlisle said: “While we expect fluctuations from year to year, this spring shows some of the changes we're seeing in our weather patterns, with more extreme conditions becoming more frequent.

The high temps also meant another thing — change in rainfall patterns. As per the Met office, this year spring rainfall decreases by 14% as compared to the long-term meteorological average for the UK.

So, while it definitely means there’s been, and will continue to be, a lot more sunshine on the cards for people living in the UK, it’s also a stark reminder that the weather is getting affected by climate change.

Much like the old wives saying we’ve discussed, most of us haven’t been able to completely strip off our winter clothing, with every alternate day requiring people to bundle up and brave the chill and the wind.

Yet, nature has proven that it hides all the signs within itself, and all we have to do is just look closely and intently.