St Swithun is without doubt the best-known name in the folklore of British weather because of the widely held belief that whether it rains or the sun shines on his saint’s day – 15 July – the same weather conditions will prevail for the following 40 days.
But there are a host of other sayings and proverbs linked with the weather in July, the height of summer. And not surprisingly, given that the harvest season is fast approaching, most of them are connected with rain.
For our ancestors, for whom the success or failure of the harvest would mean the difference between starvation and plenty during the coming autumn and winter, rain was a mixed blessing.
Too much, and it would flood fields and damage or destroy crops; too little, and the crops would not reach their full potential, leading to a shortfall.
On balance, most folklore appears to wish for sunny weather rather than rain, as in this verse about the “Dog Days” (a period of hot, muggy weather some time during July and August when Sirius, or the Dog Star, is shining):
“Dog days bright and clear indicate a happy year – but when accompanied by rain, for better times our hopes are in vain.”
This is because most of the growth of crops will already have happened – in the months of April, May and June – and now sunny weather is needed to enable the final ripening and an easy harvest.
This is why summer storms have always been especially unwelcome, as in the saying “much thunder in July injures wheat and barley”.
