The merry month of May is not always quite as pleasant as it sounds: after March winds and April showers we might expect a period of more settled weather. And yet for farmers and gardeners alike, a drop of rain is often welcome.
Weather folklore confirms this, as in the French proverb “Rainy May marries peasants” – presumably because rain at this time of year produces a better harvest later in the summer. But not, perhaps, if that harvest is grapes, for another proverb maintains that “rain in the beginning of May is said to injure the wine”.
Cool weather may also be advantageous, and there is a Scottish proverb that says: “A cold May and a windy, a full barn will find ye.”
But the French caution that “in the middle of May comes the tail of the winter”, a warning especially relevant to gardeners, whose spring plants can yet be damaged by late frosts.
Two years ago, in May 2013, this was born out at the end of the coldest spring for more than 50 years.
After a particularly chilly March, followed by a slight recovery in April and early May, the second half of the month saw temperatures stay well below the long-term average, making 2013 the coldest May since 1996.
Yet the three following months, from June to August, saw the warmest, driest and sunniest summer since 2006.
This seemed to confirm – at least for that year – the ancient belief that cold springs are often followed by hot summers.
