On 02/04/2017 09:27, Metman2012 wrote:
On 02/04/2017 08:42, Col wrote:


Yes, April is certainly the time when 'heat' showers first develop.
However to the public a shower is just a shower and they wouldn't know
if it was generated over the land or sea. So why not March, June or
November showers? What I was getting at was is showery activity in April
commoner than in other months?


Col, if you assume that April shower is a meteorological term then your
question is valid. However, I don't think it is such, but rather a folk
saying. This article in Wikipedia may help to bring a bit of light here
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_shower.

I think of it more of a 'folk saying' as you say. However even folk
sayings have to originate somewhere and be based upon something. We
don't talk of July showers after all, so why April ones?

That article doesn't really make a lot of sense to be honest. It talks
of the jet stream moving north in spring but still says this depressions
will track across Ireland & Scotland, but isn't that the norm during
winter anyway?


--
Col

Bolton, Lancashire
160m asl
Snow videos:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3QvmL4UWBmHFMKWiwYm_gg

On 02/04/2017 10:52, John Hall wrote:
In message , Col
writes


Yes, April is certainly the time when 'heat' showers first develop.
However to the public a shower is just a shower and they wouldn't know
if it was generated over the land or sea. So why not March, June or
November showers? What I was getting at was is showery activity in
April commoner than in other months?


Away from the coast, I think showers tend to be relatively rare in the
winter months, and first become noticeable around April. Also the
contribution of frontal rain tends to become less as we move into
spring. Arguably the "March winds" part of the rhyme is less reliable.

Relatively rare in the south and east perhaps. However I'm nowhere near
the coast but regularly get battered by heavy showers in strong NW
airstreams during the winter months. Though admittedly not so much this
winter just past.
--
Col

Bolton, Lancashire
160m asl
Snow videos:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3QvmL4UWBmHFMKWiwYm_gg

I imagine that "April showers Bring forth May flowers" is merely a metaphor about optimism, like every cloud having a silver lining. I'm no horticulturalist but I imagine a lot of things bloom in May which might struggle if it didn't rain in April. As is the way with these things, the phrase has just got truncated.

Mind you, in 1557 Thomas Tusser wrote "A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry". One of these was "April Husbandry" which included "Sweet April showers Do spring May flowers", kind of echoing the opening lines of Chaucer's prologue to the Canterbury Tales.

Given the poetic rather than meteorological source I don't think that the phrase making any effort to distinguish between convective and dynamic rainfall. Does anyone have a better idea than I of 16th and 14th century British rainfall climatology? Maybe April used to be wetter and March drier, as Chaucer implies. It was colder than now, I think (Little Ice Age) but I don't know about precipitation.

Stephen
Indianapolis IN

On Sunday, 2 April 2017 17:06:00 UTC+1, Stephen Davenport wrote:
I imagine that "April showers Bring forth May flowers" is merely a metaphor about optimism, like every cloud having a silver lining. I'm no horticulturalist but I imagine a lot of things bloom in May which might struggle if it didn't rain in April. As is the way with these things, the phrase has just got truncated.

Mind you, in 1557 Thomas Tusser wrote "A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry". One of these was "April Husbandry" which included "Sweet April showers Do spring May flowers", kind of echoing the opening lines of Chaucer's prologue to the Canterbury Tales.

Given the poetic rather than meteorological source I don't think that the phrase making any effort to distinguish between convective and dynamic rainfall. Does anyone have a better idea than I of 16th and 14th century British rainfall climatology? Maybe April used to be wetter and March drier, as Chaucer implies. It was colder than now, I think (Little Ice Age) but I don't know about precipitation.

Stephen
Indianapolis IN

I think it is a truncation of Thomas Tusser's rhyme too. If he'd written 'Sweet May showers/Do spring May flowers' we'd have been talking about May showers, Nothing more than a folk saying, methinks!

Op zondag 2 april 2017 13:57:18 UTC+2 schreef Col:
On 02/04/2017 09:27, Metman2012 wrote:
On 02/04/2017 08:42, Col wrote:

... So why not March, June or
November showers?

... We
don't talk of July showers after all, so why April ones?

In Dutch-speaking Belgium and the Netherlands they are known as "maartse buien" (March showers).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro1QSeMBJZA

Colin Youngs
Brussels

On Monday, 3 April 2017 10:36:19 UTC+1, Colin Youngs wrote:
Op zondag 2 april 2017 13:57:18 UTC+2 schreef Col:
On 02/04/2017 09:27, Metman2012 wrote:
On 02/04/2017 08:42, Col wrote:

... So why not March, June or
November showers?

... We
don't talk of July showers after all, so why April ones?

In Dutch-speaking Belgium and the Netherlands they are known as "maartse buien" (March showers).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro1QSeMBJZA

Colin Youngs
Brussels

An examples of the continentals being a month behind the UK? *))

On Tuesday, 4 April 2017 17:34:31 UTC+1, wrote:
On Monday, 3 April 2017 10:36:19 UTC+1, Colin Youngs wrote:
Op zondag 2 april 2017 13:57:18 UTC+2 schreef Col:
On 02/04/2017 09:27, Metman2012 wrote:
On 02/04/2017 08:42, Col wrote:

... So why not March, June or
November showers?

... We
don't talk of July showers after all, so why April ones?

In Dutch-speaking Belgium and the Netherlands they are known as "maartse buien" (March showers).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro1QSeMBJZA

Colin Youngs
Brussels

An examples of the continentals being a month behind the UK? *))

Or even a singular example!

in 448380 20170404 173431 wrote:
On Monday, 3 April 2017 10:36:19 UTC+1, Colin Youngs wrote:
Op zondag 2 april 2017 13:57:18 UTC+2 schreef Col:
On 02/04/2017 09:27, Metman2012 wrote:
On 02/04/2017 08:42, Col wrote:

... So why not March, June or
November showers?

... We
don't talk of July showers after all, so why April ones?

In Dutch-speaking Belgium and the Netherlands they are known as "maartse buien" (March showers).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro1QSeMBJZA

Colin Youngs
Brussels

An examples of the continentals being a month behind the UK? *))

Surely they are a month ahead?